PLEA FOR THE BIRDS. 107 



In the wilderness we find a certain adjustment of the 

 various tribes of plants, birds, insects, and quadrupeds, 

 differing widely from that which prevails over a large 

 extent of cultivated territory. In the latter new tribes 

 of plants are introduced by art, and nature, working in 

 harmony with man, introduces corresponding tribes of 

 insects, birds, and quadrupeds. Man may with impu- 

 nity revolutionize the vegetable productions, if he but 

 allows a certain freedom to nature, in her efforts to 

 supply the balance which he has disturbed. While 

 man is employed in restocking the earth with trees and 

 vegetables, nature endeavors to preserve her harmony 

 by a new supply of birds and insects. A superabun- 

 dance of either might be fatal to certain tribes of plants. 

 I believe the insect races to be as needful in the order 

 of creation as any other part of nature's works. The 

 same may be said of that innumerable host of plants 

 denominated weeds. But while man is endeavoring to 

 keep down superfluities, he may, by working blindly, 

 cause the very evil he designs to prevent. It is not 

 easy to check the multiplication of weeds and insects. 

 These, in spite of all direct efforts to check them, will 

 increase beyond their just mean. This calamity would 

 not happen, if we took pains to preserve the feathered 

 tribes, which are the natural checks to the multiplica- 

 tion of insects and weeds. Birds are easily destroyed ; 

 some species, indeed, are already nearly exterminated ; 

 and all are kept down to such a limit as to bear no just 

 proportion to the quantity of insects that supply them 

 with food. 



Although birds are great favorites with man, there 

 are no animals, if we except the vermin that infest our 

 dwellings, that suffer such unremitted persecution. 

 They are everywhere destroyed, either for food or for 



