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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



and never to behold another. To save us 

 from this, the birds have, among other in- 

 struments, been appointed by Him who 

 guides us in all matters wherein we cannot 

 guide ourselves. 



But how stands it with the insects, from 

 whose ravages these birds come to protect 

 us ? Are they destroyers, and nothing but 

 destroyers ? It cannot be, for they are part 

 of the creation by the same God as we our- 

 selves ; and we have it upon a record which 

 cannot lie, that when the work of creation 

 was finished, by the sixth mysterious day of 

 the great work coming to a close, " God saw 

 everything that he had made, and behold it 

 was very good." 



Now, in the case of these insects, and of all 

 the little animals which we are apt to con- 

 sider a3 noxious to us, there is as much 

 evidence of His goodness as there is in any 

 other created thing. The quantity of matter 

 cast off by the living world, and passing into 

 a state of corruption, is very great at all 

 times ; and in the warm season especially it 

 is so abundant, that if there were not some 

 means of changing its form, and making it j 

 wholesome for the time, the living world I 

 would be buried in its own rubbish. To 

 prevent this is the general purpose of those i 

 insects and small animals ; and it will inva- j 

 riably be found that they congregate in the | 

 greatest multitudes where their labors are 

 most necessary. Even when they attack and 

 destroy a crop, they act in the manner which 

 is best for the passing time, how short soever 

 the duration of that time may be ; and it is 

 only when they interfere with man's artificial 

 arrangements that he can consider them as 

 hurtful. The whole system of nature is a 

 system of mutual support ; and every portion 

 of it is conducive to the perfection of the 

 whole. 



In this matter of the summer birds and the 

 summer insects, there is an accommodation of 

 one part of nature to another, which is equally 

 worthy of our study and our admiration ; — 

 our study, for the instruction which it 

 affords ; and our admiration, as a specimen 

 of that unity and harmony which run through 

 the whole system of nature. 



The latter part of the spring and the early 

 part of the summer, according as the months 

 run in the calendar, — though the real spring, 

 in as far as its effect upon nature is concerned 

 — is the busy time with the birds, a time at 

 which their labors are proportionably greater 

 than those of any other animals at any one 

 season of the year. The mammalia have little 

 else to do than to find their own food. A few, 

 no doubt, dig burrows, and form beds of 

 withered vegetables for their young. But 

 their labors in this respect bear no proportion 

 whatever to those of the birds in the con- 

 struction of their nests, many of which are so 



elaborately made, that human art cannot 

 imitate them. The incubation, too, is a 

 severer task than the mammalia are called 

 upon to perform ; and nature provides food 

 for their young in the early stage, not only 

 without effort on the part of the parent 

 animal, but absolutely with pain to her, if it 

 is not consumed. The bird, on the other 

 hand, must feed its young on the produce of 

 its labor ; and as that produce is in very small 

 quantities, and often difficult to be procure i, 

 while the young are in general exceedingly 

 voracious, and require a vast deal of feeding, 

 the labor is very severe ; such, indeed, as 

 nothing but a winged creature would be able 

 to endure, and which not even that could 

 endure, unless some preparation were made 

 expressly for it. 



The insects and other small animals of the 

 season are exactly such a preparation. With 

 the exception of those which establish 

 colonies, construct nests, and build cells, the 

 insects and other small animals have no labor 

 to perform at this season, except the finding 

 of their own food ; and the juicy bud, the soft 

 leaf, and the readily-flowing sap of plants, 

 supply them with abundance, easily accessible, 

 and of the most nutritious quality. It is true 

 that many of those caterpillars make nests 

 for themselves, by spinning webs, rolling up 

 leaves, and various other operations ; but 

 these are trifling labors compared with the 

 labors of the birds : and while they are in the 

 state of caterpillars, the state in which birds 

 feed most abundantly upon them, they have 

 no labor to perform but such as tends to the 

 maintenance of the individual. The labor, 

 if labor it can be called, which is the mere 

 depositing of their eggs, is, in the annual 

 ones, performed in the previous autumn ; so 

 that one may say that those eggs have no 

 more self-exertion in coming to maturity than 

 a seed has in sprouting or a fruit in ripening. 



The more abundant insects and small 

 animals are, during the breeding season of 

 birds, as compared with what they are at 

 other times of the year, the more completely 

 are they seasonal ; and the less labor is re- 

 quired of any one single species for the pro- 

 duction of their myriads. They are the 

 children of the season, called forth by the 

 genial warmth of the sun ; and if that warmth 

 did not come upon them and excite them, 

 they would lie dormant for centuries ; indeed, 

 for ever. It is true that every germ is from 

 a parent ; for without this there can be no 

 production of even the smallest animal ; but 

 still the germ would be nothing availing 

 without the excitement of the season. 



E. M. 



[We most strongly recommend a careful 

 perusal of this article. Casual observers 

 will find in it many of their lax notions 

 kindly corrected.] 



