KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



213 



they also divide the land among them, one 

 taking one locality, and another another. 



They are our song birds by way of emi- 

 nence ; for, though many of our native birds 

 sing pleasantly, there are none that are equal 

 to these ; and besides, the songs of our native 

 birds have rather begun to abate before these 

 little strangers arrive, and they are not 

 resumed till the strangers have departed, 

 though some of our native birds, the males of 

 the year's breed especially, sing in the 

 autumn, and occasionally even in the winter. 

 The bold and familiar redbreast, for example, 

 often sings sweetly from a tree close by the 

 window, at times when there is not another 

 song uttered by any individual of the 

 feathered race. Those birds, which are so 

 very characteristic of the maturity of the 

 vernal season, are very differently distributed 

 in different parts of our country. Being all 

 birds which retire to more southerly latitudes 

 when the supply of insects begins to be over, 

 they are of course more numerous in species, 

 as much as in individuals of the same species, 

 in the southern parts of the country than in 

 the northern. Some, and those the sweetest 

 songsters of the whole, never reach the north 

 or even farther than the middle of the country, 

 and where they do come they are not found 

 in the hilly parts. This is the case with that 

 sweetest, and probably least seen of all our 

 songsters, the nightingale, whose cheerful 

 song of encouragement and joy has been so 

 ridiculously fabled as a voice of lamentation, 

 for bereavement, uttered by the widowed 

 female ! The female of this species does 

 hnppen to sing a little sometimes, though 

 but seldom, and not very well : but the male 

 is the grand songster, and his is anything but 

 a song of sorrow. 



To those who visit the fields and the groves 

 during the spring, for the purposes of 

 breathing the healthful breeze, studying the 

 beauties of nature, and admiring the wisdom 

 and goodness of Nature's Author, those visi- 

 tant bird* which come to us in the very blush 

 of the blooming season, and give voice to 

 nature when decked out in the choicest orna- 

 ments of the year, are among the most de- 

 lightful subjects connected with the time. 



But the study of them goes much farther 

 than this ; and w T hen we examine them 

 aright, we do not fail to perceive that their 

 usefulness is even greater than the pleasure 

 which we derive in listening to their songs. 

 This, indeed, is a general truth in nature, 

 and clearly proves to us that there is nothing 

 there which merely serves to feast our eyes 

 with an unmeaning spectacle, and our ears 

 with an unavailing sound. In what man pro- 

 duces by art, the beauty and the utility are 

 sometimes separated ; but this is never the 

 case in nature. There is not a substance or 

 a creature which God has made, or an event 



brought about by those natural causes which 

 he has appointed, that entices us by its 

 beauty, without involving something w r hich 

 will repay in usefulness the attention we 

 bestow upon it. No doubt there are many 

 cases in which we remain ignorant of this 

 usefulness ; but in every such case the fault 

 is in ourselves and not in nature ; and the 

 connection between the fair and the valuable 

 has been so clearly established in so many 

 cases, that it holds out the strongest induce- 

 ment for us to follow up, by the most diligent 

 inquiry, every natural subject which presses 

 itself strongly upon our attention. The book 

 of Nature is fair and ample ; it is spread wide 

 before us. "YVe are endowed with the capa- 

 city of reading it, if w T e will but learn ; and 

 therefore we stand not only inexcusable, but 

 self-condemned, if w T e go down to our graves 

 in ignorance of the many enjoyments which 

 God has thronged around our temporal con- 

 dition, to humble our vanity, to alleviate our 

 suffering, and to bring us back to the know- 

 ledge of how insignificant we and all our 

 boasted doings are in comparison with the 

 smallest work of Him who created thelleavens 

 and the earth, and endowed us with discern- 

 ment and understanding. 



In the case of these summer birds, the 

 discovery of their usefulness is a matter of no 

 difficulty. "We see with our own eyes the 

 ravages which many species of caterpillars 

 commit where there are no birds to consume 

 their numbers, where they are not accessible 

 to birds, or where they breed so rapidly, 

 owing to particular states of the weather, as 

 that the birds are unable to keep them within 

 due bounds. How often do our turnips, our 

 hops, and numerous other cultivated plants, 

 nearly or totally fail in consequence of the 

 ravages of some minute insect, which culti- 

 vators popularly know r by the name of " the 

 fly ! " How often are whole orchards left, not 

 only without a fruit to ripen, but without a 

 leaf, and with the twigs wrapt up in the nets 

 of caterpillars which have feasted for their 

 time, and undergone their transformation ! 

 and how often do the larva? of insects invade 

 our dwelling-houses and spoil our provisions, 

 our clothes, our books, and many other 

 articles ! 



Now, if only a slight stagnation of vegetable 

 growth, occasioned by a bleak dry wind from 

 the east or any other cause, can produce 

 effects so disastrous wherever that cause 

 operates; — if this happens (and that it does 

 so to some extent or other, every season bears 

 witness), let us just consider what would be 

 the condition of us and all our possessions if 

 the whole of these insect plagues were letloos-e 

 upon us, without any controlling power to regu- 

 late their numbers. Were such to become 

 the case, all that would remain for us would 

 be to be wretched for a part of one summer. 



