582 A Pica for Small Birds. 



G. B. Buckton, published in four volumes by the Ray Society, and 

 fully illustrated with coloured figures. My object now in view is 

 gained if I have pointed out what myriads of these minute insects 

 infest our plants, shrubs, and trees, and how injurious, nay, haw 

 destructive, they would be to vegetation generally, were their 

 numbers unchecked. But simultaneously with the hatching of 

 the aphides in the spring come the troops of Warblers which 

 soon overrun our gardens and hedgerows in every direction, and 

 make their presence known by their joyous songs. At once they 

 begin to feast on the new-born aphides, but by the time they 

 have built their nests and hatched out their young, the aphides 

 are swarming on all sides, and now begins their wholesale destruc- 

 tion, when the parent birds have to supply their ravenous young 

 with an insect diet ; and it is almost incredible how large a num- 

 ber of these injurious insects are destroyed in a single day by 

 each pair of diminutive Warblers catering for their brood. 



Nor are the Warblers alone in their raid on these insect 

 hordes. The Titmice and the Finches are not far behind-hand, 

 for they, too, must provide the same soft diet for their callow 

 young. Even the much-abused House-sparrow lends his aid in 

 their destruction, and carries home supplies of insects for his 

 young brood in the thatch. 



Then turn to the Swallows, Martins, and Swifts, careering 

 through the air on rapid wing what hosts of gnats does not 

 every one of them consume, catching them on the wing, and 

 clearing the air as they go of the superabundance of these pests 

 to man ! Or think of the Thrushes and Blackbirds what hosts 

 of noxious grubs do they not destroy, what vast quantities of 

 slugs and snails, so destructive of many valuable plants, do they 

 not devour ! 



But as one ounce of fact is worth more than ten pounds of argu- 

 ment, let me call attention to the action of the United States, which, 

 at considerable expense of time and money, found it advisable, 

 for economic purposes, to introduce a number of European small 

 birds into their country ; and amongst these was particularly 

 specified the Titmouse, which the English gardeners more espe- 



