UTILITY OF BIRDS. I 89 



species whose rudimentary wings do not permit of their wandering 

 away. Whatever the cause, however, the species found there are 

 not obtained elsewhere. There we find the unique Dodo, a form of 

 animal which became extinct in the last century. 



There is a wonderful charm of companionship in birds — they 

 give animation to the scene, skipping from bush to bush, or 

 skimming the surface of land and water. They please the eye 

 by their graceful shape and plumage, and they charm our ears 

 by their ceaseless warblings. Even for this we lie under a debt of 

 gratitude to these graceful inhabitants of the air. But this is far 

 from being the limit of the benefits we derive from them. The 

 birds of the poultry-yards furnish our most delicate food ; their eggs 

 form a considerable branch of trade, and are indispensable in the 

 kitchen ; and what would become of the country should our birds 

 ever become extinct? — an event by no means improbable, seeing 

 that in the year of grace 1868 the head-dress of every votary of 

 fashion was decorated with the wing of a bird, not confining the 

 demand to Birds of Paradise and Ostriches, but using whatever 

 varieties were obtainable ; but now, thank goodness, the law protects 

 even the harmless sea-fowl, which were destroyed by thousands only 

 for the sake of their wings. 



Birds are useful to man by destroying insects, larvae, and cater- 

 pillars which infest cultivated crops. Without their aid agriculture 

 would become impossible. In former times it was a favourite 

 doctrine with the agriculturist that the Passerina were the real 

 destroyers of his crops, and a war of extermination was declared 

 against them ; but the observations of more enlightened persons 

 have demonstrated that the chief food of most of these consists of 

 insects, and the havoc among them has consequently been stayed ; 

 still much ignorance, and its concomitant, cruelty, exist on this 

 point. Elsewhere, those interested soon discovered that the de- 

 struction of small birds led to formidable increase in the numbers 

 "of voracious insects — that these lively and joyous creatures, which 

 float in the air and twitter on the bough, are sent us more for good 

 than evil, and that if some of them make the crops pay a tax, they 

 repay it tenfold by keeping down the excess of more destructive 

 ravagers. 



While the smaller birds have proved essentially beneficial to man, 

 some of the larger birds exhibit similar tendencies. The Wading 

 Bird clears the earth of serpents and other unclean and venomous 

 animals. The Vultures and Storks consume corrupt carrion and 

 divest the soil of all putrefying objects; thus, in concert with insects, 



