ANOTHER PLEA FOR THE BIRDS. 167 



SECTION VIII. ANOTHER PLEA FOR THE BIRDS. 



THE following interesting passages are from a paper read 

 by Mr. Townsend Glover, before the late meeting of the 

 United States Agricultural Society, and published in the 

 Washington National Intelligencer : 



" Here, however, let me change the subject, to put in a 

 plea for mischievous birds, which appear to have been sent to 

 keep the ' balance of power' in insect life, which insects would 

 otherwise multiply to such a degree as to be perfectly un- 

 bearable, and render the agriculturist's toil entirely useless. 

 A farmer keeps a watch-dog to guard his premises, and cats 

 to kill rats and mice in his granary and barn ; yet he suffers 

 an 'unfeathered biped' to tear down his rails, in order to get a 

 chance shot at a robin, wren, or blue-bird, which may be un- 

 fortunate enough to be on his premises ; and yet these very 

 birds do him more good than either dog or cat, working dili- 

 gently from morn to dark, and killing and destroying insects 

 injurious to his crops, which, if not thus thinned out, would 

 eventually multiply to such an extent as to leave him scarcely 

 any crop whatsoever. 



" Birds are accused of eating cherries and other fruits. 

 True ; but the poor birds merely take a tithe of the fruit to 

 pay for the tree, which, but for their unceasing efforts, would 

 otherwise probably have been killed in its infancy. To ex- 

 emplify the utility of birds, I will give one or two instances 

 that have occurred under my own observation. Some years 

 ago, I took a fancy to keep beep 5 accordingly, hives were 

 procured, and books read upon the subject. One day a king- 

 bird, or bee-martin was observed to be very busy about the 

 hives, apparently snapping up every straggling bee he could 

 find. Indignant at such a breach of hospitality, as his nest 



