XXI. 



nature's militia 



' If nature's militia, the army of birds, be killed, it will 

 be impossible to find a substitute for their faithful 

 guardianship.' 



' Birds are nature's soldiers, and keep in subjection 

 the inferior animals. Their other uses are scarcely 

 worthy of notice compared with their labours in the 

 destruction of insects.' 



Wise words, which cannot be too often insisted on ; 

 for though we are beginning to wake up to the immense 

 value of the feathered tribes as guardians of our fields, 

 we are still only beginning ; and, unfortunately, farmers 

 and gardeners, the very persons most interested, are 

 precisely those whom it is most difficult to arouse. 



They know well enough, of course, that insects, 

 generally speaking, are their enemies; but they do not 

 yet recognise, as they ought, that the birds are their 

 friends, who, if only let alone, would save the crops 

 from these marauders. 



A plague of grubs finds us, in fact, just as helpless as 

 our forefathers in the Middle Ages, and almost more 

 hopeless, for we no longer believe in trying to ' banish ' 

 our enemies, and we have not yet discovered any more 



