THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



71 



In the third place, I am convinced that 

 the current ideas respecting the utility of 

 birds are prompted by impulse rather than 

 reflection, and I believe that, if more at- 

 tention had been paid to the role played 

 by insectivorous birds and to the mode of 

 life of the insects which injure us, very 

 different conclusions would have been 

 reached. 



Further, I have tried this experiment, 

 more than once. In conversation with 

 learned entomologists, I have asked the 

 simple question whether insectivorous birds 

 are useful to agriculture. They have never 

 failed to answer in the affirmative, — -so 

 plausible is the apparent logical relation 

 between these two ideas :— birds living on 

 insects and consecpiently protecting agri- 

 culture, which suffers so much from in- 

 sects, — so powerful is the influence of a 

 generally accepted opinion. And then, 

 when I have asked them to reflect upon 

 this relation, and have interested them in 

 the investigation which I shall presently 

 take up, they have very soon stopped me 

 to say that they had been wrong and that 

 I was right. Such are the considerations 

 which determine me to contradict so many 

 affirmations which no one has hitherto op- 

 posed. In doing this I have no intention 

 whatever of furnishing a weapon against 

 those who blame and would prevent the 

 excessive destruction of birds. I deplore 

 as much as any one the abusive pursuit to 

 which they are subject ; I deeply regret the 

 diminution of the songsters which impart 

 so many charms to our groves and forests, 

 the hosts which animate our fields, gardens 

 and orchards, and bring gayety into our very 

 homes. I observe with sorrow the decrease 

 of game, which affords at once useful and 

 agreeable recreation, and an important 

 alimentary resource. It is not against the 

 birds that I write, my sole end is to destroy 

 what I believe to be an error and to estab- 

 lish what I believe to be the truth. 



Nearly all birds, perhaps quite all, eat 

 insects. Birds of prey, even, when fam- 

 ished, accept this last resort ; as do also, 

 according to M. Florent Prevost, the 

 Wolf, Fox and Badger, when their hunting 



has been unlucky. There are birds, such 

 as Swallows, Martins and Goat-suckers, 

 which live exclusively on insects ; others, 

 like the Nightingale, Linnets and, gene- 

 rally, those known as Warblers [bee-fins), 

 which habitually consume insects, and only 

 vary from this habit in the latter part of 

 the season by eating berries, figs, etc. ; 

 others, such as the Chaffinches, Goldfinches 

 and Sparrows, which prefer insects to seeds 

 when they nourish their young ; but which 

 the remainder of the time, like seeds better 

 than insects. Others, the Wood-peckers, 

 for example, are omnivorous ; — insects, 

 worms, larvse, seeds, fruits, little birds and 

 young chickens, everything is good for 

 them. Finally, not to prolong this list, — 

 very far from complete — the rapacious 

 birds, such as the Owls, Buzzards and 

 Kites, more disposed to live upon flesh, 

 sometimes content themselves, in despair 

 of anything better, with game less succu- 

 lent and less appropriate to their tastes. 



From this very succinct and very incom- 

 plete summary (which each can complete 

 for himself), it follows, that considering 

 the great number of birds, a prodigious 

 daily destruction of insects occurs. We 

 must compute, not by thousands merely, 

 but by hundreds of thousands or by mil- 

 lions, according to the area included in the 

 estimate, the number of victims consumed 

 during the summer, from one sun to an- 

 other. The imagination is appalled at the 

 idea of the total reached at the end of the 

 year. It will be seen that I conceal noth- 

 ing, but do justice at the start to those 

 who proclaim the utility of birds. We 

 must be truthful above all, but we 

 must be truthful to the end ; and in our 

 pursuit of the actual, we shall find their 

 calculations notably compromised. Be- 

 yond a doubt, then, an incalculable num- 

 ber of insects become the prey of birds ; 

 but how many of these insects arc injurious ? 

 Evidently this is the whole question, for 

 no one would dream of resting the utility 

 of birds upon the destruction of insects 

 which are completely indifferent to our 

 interests. This, then, is the question which 

 we must elucidate and resolve. By nox- 



