322 



Natures Militia 



and pass into the chr3^salis state, which they spend 

 — as much of it as they are allowed — in cracks 

 and crannies, in sheltered nooks, on twigs and trunks 

 of trees, on palings and walls, and in the ground. 

 These supply food to the many insect-eating birds 

 which do not migrate ; and but for the unceasing 

 labours of these stay-at-homes we should be over- 

 run with insects in the spring, in spite of all that is 

 done in the summer ; for each chrysalis devoured 

 saves us from some hundreds of grubs or caterpillars 

 later on. 



From all this it must be sufficiently plain that with- 

 out the birds every green thing would be devoured. 

 Yet to talk of the * patient, unpaid labour ' of the birds 

 is a trifle absurd, for their 'labour' is its own reward, 

 and consists in picking up food for themselves and their 

 families ; and it is incessant merely because they and 

 their nestlings are always hungry — a most fortunate 

 provision of nature ; for does even the most ardent of 

 bird-lovers flatter himself that they would devote them- 

 selves to clearing his trees of grubs if they lost their 

 appetites ? 



If anyone needs proof of what would certainly follow 

 the extermination of the birds, he need only look at the 

 island of Jamaica, where they are at present very scarce, 

 having been killed off, chiefly to adorn ladies' bonnets. 

 It must be remembered, too, that while birds multiply 

 only by tens, insects increase by hundreds, by thousands, 

 and by tens of thousands, in a single season, so that 

 although the birds are now protected in Jamaica it will 

 be long before the loss is made good. Meantime they 

 are terribly avenged ; for the island suffers from a 

 disgusting and grievous plague of ticks imported with 



