HIRUNDO RUSTICA. 89 



Circulation is necessary in water ; and we know how Nature has provided 

 for the tides by forces : thus water is kept fit for its purposes. Movement 

 is necessary in Uving things ; and forces are also provided to prevent a 

 Didine stagnation ; for I look upon the Do Do (whose name most authors 

 write wrongly) as the emblem of stagnation. 



It requires not to dwell in the sanctity of the scientific circle to be 

 familiar with the celebrated sequence of events from the cat -keeping old 

 maid to the fertilization of clover ; externs^ even, have heard of that chain. 

 The same links might easily be traced between starvation of bipeds m Seven 

 Dials or Birmingham and the arrival of the Cuckoo or other caterpillar- and 

 grub-eating birds, forming a stronger series. 



If for one year migration should fail in toto, the result produced in 

 England would astonish the charitable ; for starving poor (from failure of 

 crops, devoured by every kind of grub) would rouse the Stock Exchange, 

 and the landowners might say to their rents, as to Marmion, " Good night/' 



Could we, then, get on without birds ? No ! and they must be sent for, 

 like troops for the battle. New Zealand knows this, and acts upon it : she 

 supplements nature by taking ship-loads of insect-eating species from our 

 shores ; and England has for several years past added a new item to her 

 exports — Sparrows &c. ! 



The notion that the loss of the immigration of the Sylviidse &c. into this 

 country could possibly afi^ect the Stock Exchange might appear to some 

 minds simply ludicrous ; to mine no Q. E. D. was ever more certain or easier 

 of perception. 



