PIRBY : BIRDS V. INSECTS. 



341 



tlie kestrel-falcon, Falco tinnunculus, not a very uncommon bird with us, 

 eats so many beetles, grasshoppers, and field-mice, that its utility in this 

 respect is a sufficient compensation for the injury it may otherwise cause. 

 The same description is applicable to the hobby falcon, Falco subbuteo. 

 A flight of these last birds lately passed over the Canton de Vaud, and 

 alighted on the trees standing round the village of E"ouvion. The inha- 

 bitants fancying them to be pigeons, killed a fe w ; but when tliey saw the 

 empressment with which the bird sought after and devoured cockchafers, they 

 had the wisdom to desist from their ignorant amusement, The most useful 

 and at the same time one of the most common birds of prey, is the common 

 buzzard, Falco buteo, so often mistaken for the injurious goshawk, Falco 

 jpalumbarius ; it destroys immense quantities of rats, mice, snakes, &c. More 

 than twenty mice have been found at one time in the stomach of a bird of 

 this class, while Steinmuller once dissected one which had no less than seven 

 Anguis fragilis, and thirteen GryllotalycB in its stomach. The annual con- 

 sumption of one single bird has been computed to average about 4,000 

 mice. 



It is not my intention here to call attention to all the useful birds in 

 detail, but merely to some of the most remarkable of them, with a view to 

 showing how great is their importance to all branches of agriculture. Without 

 these active little creatures, agriculture and vegetation would be impossibili- 

 ties , they perform an Augaean labour which millions of human digits could 

 neither do with the same facility nor haK the completeness. 



We have yet to treat of an order of birds, numbering several families, 

 which appear in great numbers and play an important part in the economy 

 of nature, — we mean the crow tribe, Corvidoe. It is of course difficult to 

 judge them all in an aggregate body, for the different species vary in their 

 mode of life. The jay belongs to this class, and destroys quantities 

 of insects, but damages the seeds of forest-trees, and attacks nests 

 of small birds, devouring their eggs, and young ; it is not a little remarkable 

 for its destruction of venomous vipers. The jay is injurious to many crops ; 

 it has been seen to tear off a wheat-ear whilst in full flight and swallow it 

 whole. The same may be said of the crow, Corvus corone, which at the 

 period of nidification, manifests the carnivorous disposition of a real bird of 

 prey, and carries off quails, young ducks, partridges, and even leverets. The 

 magpie, C. jnca, decidedly does more harm than good ; voracious and pos- 

 sessed of a species of vulpine cunning, it does not rest satisfied mth young 

 birds merely, but hunts perpetually' those of all ages. The most useful and 



