FACTS THAT PEOVE THE UTILITY OF BODS 



The consequences which have followed the destruction 

 of birds in many well-authenticated instances are suffi- 

 cient to demonstrate their utility. Professor Jenks men- 

 tions a case communicated by one of his female ci >rresp< ind- 

 ents. In former times, as she had been told by her father, 

 an annual shooting-match was customary on election day 

 in May. On one of these occasions, about the year L820, 

 in North Bridgewater, Mass., the birds were killed in such 

 quantities that cart-loads of them were sent to farmers for 

 compost. Then followed a great scarcity of birds in all 

 that vicinity. The herbs soon showed signs of injury. 

 Tufts of withered grass appeared and spread out widely 

 into circles of a seared and burnt complexion. Though 

 the cause and effect were so near each other, they w< 

 not logically put together by the inhabitants at that time. 

 Modern entomology would have explained to them the 

 cause of the phenomena, by the increase of the larva of 

 insects which were previously kept in check by tin- birds 

 destroyed at the shooting-match. 



After the abolition of the game-laws in France, at the 

 close of the last century, the people, having been a< cus- 

 tomed to regard birds as the property of great land-own 

 destroyed them without limit. Every species of 

 including even the small singing-birds, was in danger ol 

 extermination. It was found necessary to protect them 

 bylaws that forbade hunting at certain seasons, 

 most serious evils were the consequence. The farm< 

 crops were destroyed by insects, and the orchards pi 



