* 
a à "< 
94 Mr. Peabody on the 
mušt give it up as lost, for all that we at present 
know. Surely, then, of two evils we should submit 
to the one which may possibly be prevented, rather 
than invite and encourage one over which we have 
no control. 
A slight calculation will show what an amount 
of service birds are able to render. Wilson makes 
the computation, that each red-winged blackbird 
devours on an average fifty grubs à day ; so thata 
single pair, in four months, will consume more than 
twelve thousand. Allowing that there are a million 
pairs of these birds in New England, in summer, 
which is but a moderate estimate, they would de- 
stroy twelve thousand millions. Let any one com 
sider what an immense injury that number of in- 
sects would do, and this would be sufficiently strik- 
ing to show how much we are indebted to the la 
bors of these birds. But the computation may be 
greatly extended, for many insects have young by 
the hundred ; beside cutting off the existing de 
stroyers, they are prevented from multiplying ; and 
when we consider what myriads of birds there are; 
constantly and efficiently engaged in this service, it 
gives us an impression, beyond the power of calcu 
lation to reach, of the astonishing manner in which | 
the increase of insects is kept down, simply by 
sparing the lives of their natural destroyers ; and 
this, it must be remembered, is the only means of 
preventing their increase and reducing their formida 
ble numbers. No other remedy that man can apply 
will reach the evil; this is the vocation of birds; 
and if, for the sake of removing a small evil, we 
E? 
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