BIRDS AROUND OUR DWELLINGS. 139 



birds, to treat of them as they have relation to the agri- 

 cultural interest. Admitting the value of almost every 

 species as destroyers of insects, I am disposed to con- 

 sider their importance in this respect as only secondary 

 to that which regards their pleasant companionship 

 with man. Hence it is a matter of no small conse- 

 quence to use the best means that have been discovered, 

 to preserve the birds from destruction, and to multiply 

 them about our dwellings. Very little attention has 

 been paid to this subject. A few laws have been made 

 for tJheir preservation ; but these have seldom been en- 

 forced. Occasionally a paragraph in the newspapers 

 has pleaded for their protection ; but as yet no full and 

 elaborate essay, devoted to this object, has made its ap- 

 pearance. I believe the farmer would promote his own 

 thrift by extending a watchful care over the lives of 

 every species of birds ; but the smaller tribes are con- 

 sidered the most useful. And it would seem as if na- 

 ture had given them their beauty of plumage, and 

 endowed them with song, on purpose to render them 

 attractive, that man might thereby be induced to preserve 

 a race of creatures so necessary to his pleasures, and so 

 valuable to his interest. 



There are two methods of preserving the birds : the 

 first consists in omitting to destroy them ; the second in 

 promoting the growth of certain trees, shrubs, and 

 other plants on which they depend for shelter and sub- 

 sistence. The birds, considered in relation to trees and 

 shrubbery, may be divided into two classes. First, the 

 familiar birds that live in our orchards and gardens, and 

 increase in numbers in proportion as the woods are 

 cleared, and the lajids devoted to tillage. To this class 

 belong several of our sparrows, the wren, the bluebird, 

 the American robin, the bobolink, the linnet, the yellow- 



