THIRTEEN] SECURING OUR ALLIES 
ing everywhere for the eggs that are hidden away 
under the bark, and for borers that are in the trees. 
The poetry of life always has a practical side to it, 
and most practical affairs, rightly worked out, are 
full of poetry. 
Mr. Henry Oldys, biologist of the Geological 
Survey, speaks of birds as national property. He 
says, “Let the farmer remember that every bird 
destroyed, and particularly every nest robbed, is 
equivalent to a definite increase in insects with 
which he already has to struggle, and he will soon 
appreciate the fact that he has a personal interest, 
and a strong one, in the preservation of the birds. 
Robert Kennicott, a most careful and reliable ob- 
server, ascertained that a single pair of house wrens 
carried to their young about one thousand insects in 
a day. At this rate a young brood of wrens destroys, 
before leaving the nest, as many as ten thousand 
insects. According to the usual proportion, in the 
food of these birds, about six thousand of these 
insects are such as devastate crops. 
A home where robins, bluebirds, humming 
birds, wrens, chipping sparrows, catbirds, and 
orioles form an animated and friendly throng on 
bush and tree and sunny lawn, or pour their notes 
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