176 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
enough small birds for the table, a cry of distress goes 
out concerning the ravages of destructive insects. Eng- 
land, foreseeing this danger, wisely concluded that it 
was no longer safe to allow every idle, selfish, irrespon- 
sible man and boy to “become a law unto himself” 
in this matter, and that as moral suasion failed, the 
stronger arm of the law was necessary to protect the 
interests of those whose rights were disregarded by the 
lawless. Stringent bird laws were enacted, and as a 
result, several species of song birds in England are 
again on the increase. 
I do not believe we have a single native bird that is 
not a greater creditor than debtor. to man, while nearly 
all species are entirely useful, conferring only benefits 
and inflicting no injury. When unmolested by man, 
wonderfully well do they fill their places in the econ- 
omy of nature. Among them are fitting workers in the 
air, the swamps, the forests, along water-courses, in 
orchards, gardens, meadows, grain fields and pastures, 
busy all the day in their priceless feeding services, yet 
most of them finding time to still further gladden the 
world by their minstrelsy. 
In usefulness, the thrush family doubtless stands 
first. The benefits conferred on husbandry by them 
are incalculable. This family work principally on the 
surface of the earth, devouring in great numbers all 
manner of worms, grubs, harvest-flies, beetles, cater- 
pillars, and other creeping things that prey on roots and 
stalks of vegetation. In this service no others excel 
the robins, the most familiar of the thrushes; these are 
