Nature's Militia 315 



Germany, but one may travel many a long mile without 

 seeing any of the hedgerows with which he is familiar 

 in England. The fields are for the most part one large 

 expanse, without any bordering of trees or bushes. 



But it is quite possible to be too thrifty. If every 

 foot of land is occupied by crops, where are the birds 

 to build their nests ? Most of them need more shelter 

 than is to be found upon the ground, and if they cannot 

 find it in one place they are obliged to look for it in 

 another. If the farmer will not spare them a few trees 

 and bushes, they are compelled to desert his fields and 

 leave them unprotected. 



But this is not all. Grubs, as well as birds, find 

 shelter in the hedges ; and not only shelter, but food. 

 When the birds are driven away, therefore, the grubs 

 are driven away, too ; but, alas ! while the birds 

 migrate to a distance, the grubs are only driven out of 

 the bushes and hedge-plants, where they are compara- 

 tively harmless, into fields, orchards, and gardens, 

 where, in the absence of the * militia,' they run riot as 

 they will. 



We see, indeed, the 



' . . . . hedges all alive 

 With birds and gnats, and large white butterflies, 

 Which look as if the May-flower had caught life, 

 And palpitated forth upon the wind.' 



We see ; but perhaps we hardly realize that if the 

 hedge be cut down its population will find quarters 

 elsewhere ; and that while the birds betake themselves 

 to the nearest thicket, perhaps some distance off, the 

 butterflies and moths will simply flit a few yards, many 

 of them being quite content to supply their offspring 

 with cultivated plants when they cannot get wild ones. 

 Somewhere or other they must and will lay their eggs 



