A PLEA FOB THE BIRDS. 



1109 



of fashion are those which do the most efficient service for the farmer 

 in destroying the' insects which feed upon his crops, trees, and plants. 



We present illustrations, of a few species of birds of beautiful 

 plumage thus hunted for their fine feathers, regardless of the bene- 

 fits thay confer as destroyers of injurious insects. 



We cannot better enforce the appeal we desire to make on this 

 subject, than by quo$ing>h extract from an eloquent sermon deliv- 

 ered in 1886 by the eminent divine, the Rev. Henry Ward 

 Beecher: — 



"There is another department of the animal kingdom of which 

 I wish to speak; I mean birds. I hardly know how this world 

 would get along without them. They toil not, any more than the. 

 lily, neither do they spin. Yet a summer without birds would seem 

 almost to be no summer at all. Some of the most salient of our in- 

 spirations are connected with bird-song. I do n't suppose that if you 



Fi8; 1532. — Blue-birds. 

 Feed on spiders, small worms, and various insects. 



live in the city you Vnow anything about it, because the little 

 driblets of birds' songs that men hear in the daytime are no ade- 

 quate revelation of their minstrelsy. 



"It is in the summer my habit to rise about half-past three of 

 an unclouded morning— not to stay up, but at about four to hear 

 the leading notes, the call of the chorister, usually in some near 

 tree; a little piping noise, as much as to say: 'My dear, are you 



