INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 259 



come. When, however, the spring conies suddenly in a 

 northward place, and before the decay of food and the action 

 of heat southward has sent the usual accompaniment of birds 

 to watch the opening buds, the young year feels dull and 

 desolate. It has been remarked, too, that in those years 

 vegetation suffers more than usual from the ravages of insects ; 

 though that, no doubt, in part, arises from the checks which 

 it subsequently receives when the young leaves are so far 

 expanded, that they derive little shelter from the hyberna- 

 culum which protects the germ in the winter, and the bird 

 in the early stage, before the leaves are so much unrolled as 

 to have much action in the air, But the very same non- 

 conducting property of the albuminous scales of the hyber- 

 naculum which preserves the germ from the winter's cold, 

 prevents the hatching of the insects' eggs, millions of which 

 are gathered by the birds when they first visit the sprays, in 

 the opening bud ; and if the birds are not there, these hatch 

 apace, and the caterpillars gnaw into the cones of the buds, 

 and spoil the vegetation of the year, as much in the shoots of 

 the forest trees as in the blossoms of the fruit. It is then 

 that the little strangers are peculiarly useful; and, as the males 

 generally come first, and commence their songs after a very 

 short rest, considering the length of their journey, they are as 

 charming as they are useful. A few graminivorous birds do 

 then mingle with them, and eat the small seeds that are sown 

 in borders ; but still, the damage done in that way is nothing 

 compared with the general good ; and it may be said, that 

 he who kills one of the insectivorous birds in the spring, pays 

 a bushel of apples as a fine to Nature in the autumn. 



The spring birds, the spring breezes, arid the spring leaves, 

 all come together as parts of the same system ; and it is not 

 for us to separate them in their usefulness. But should we 

 not also include the insects ? for they too are the children of 

 Nature. Where man does not cultivate, the insects, which 



