328 Natures Militia 



risk of having to pay occasional toll to the pigeons, 

 than to have their crops choked with weeds. 



In this chapter we a a necessarily considering 

 •nature's militia' chiefly as they affect the crops of 

 farmer and gardener, for it is here that we are best able 

 to see their work ; and from what they do in field and 

 orchard, we are able to form some idea of what their 

 work is in the uncultivated fields and woods of theworld. 



It is only when the birds come into contact with 

 man that any doubts as to their usefulness can possibly 

 arise, and even here, in that part of ' the green world ' 

 which he has taken into his keeping, we are learning 

 more and more to see that they are not only useful, 

 but actually indispensable. 



With the exception of the flying insects which carry 

 pollen from flower to flower, there are few insects in 

 any part of the world which are not the enemies of 

 those who cultivate the soil, though, like prairie-fires, 

 they have their uses where nature is sole farmer, and 

 it would be rash indeed to say that any, even of the 

 worst, could be entirely dispensed with. But insects 

 in excess, which we most certainly should have if the 

 ' militia ' were withdrawn, would change the world from 

 • green ' to brown, and cause a general famine. And 

 the question before us is : will we share with the birds, 

 or have all devoured by insects ? 



A few words as to what in temperate latitudes may 

 be regarded, perhaps, as the farmer's three worst 

 enemies — cockchafers, daddy-long-legs, and click- 

 beetles or skip-jacks. It is in the grub-state that most 

 insects are chiefly mischievous, for this is their grand 

 eating-time; eating is then their sole business, and 

 they eat for their whole lives. For when they get 



