TESTIMONY FOE THE BIRDS. 361 



and as each of those grains contained a weevil, lie be- 

 lieved they were eaten for the sake of the insect within 

 them. The jealousy of the Ohio farmers had prompted 

 them in this case to destroy a family of birds, at the very 

 time when they were performing an incalculable amount 

 of benefit to agriculture. 



The Southern farmers suspected the kildeer, a species 

 of plover, of destroying young turnips. A writer in the 

 " Southern Planter," alluding to this notion, declares the 

 kildeer to be the true guardian of the turnip crop ; and 

 to prove his assertion he dissected a number of them. 

 Their crops were found to contain no vegetable substance. 

 Nothing was found in them save the little bug that is a 

 well-known destroyer of turnips and tobacco-plants. 

 They were little hopping beetles, and were rapidly in- 

 creasing, because the kildeers, their natural enemies, had 

 been nearly exterminated. " I seldom nowadays," he says, 

 "hear the kildeer's voice. Let no man henceforth kill 

 one except to convince himself and others that they eat 

 no young turnips. The sacrifice of one, producing such 

 conviction, may save hundreds of his brethren." 



Insects of various kinds, in the year 1826, had become 

 so generally destructive as to cause apprehensions for the 

 safety of all products of the field. A correspondent of 

 the "Massachusetts Yeoman" expressed his belief that 

 this unusual number of injurious insects was caused by 

 the scarcity of birds. His neighbors were astonished that 

 everything in his garden should be so thrifty, while their 

 plants were cut down and destroyed before they had ac- 

 quired any important growth. " I have no concern about 

 it," he replied ; " my robins see to that. I preserve them 

 from their enemies, and they preserve my garden from 

 worms and insects. In one corner of my garden near 

 my dwelling is a tree in which a couple of these friends 

 of man have reared their families for three successive 



16 



