MORRIS ; FOOD OF BIRDS. 



135 



As to tlie damage tliat they do, I further wrote of a kindred species ; 

 showing that I have not omitted the case in what I have published on the 

 subject, quoting from Wilson and Buonaparte, where they give in their 

 ' ' American Ornithology" the following calculation of the good effected by 

 these birds in return for whatever grain they may consume : — " Their gene- 

 ral food at this season, as well as during the early part of summer, consists of 

 caterpillars and various other larvae, the silent but deadly enemies of all vege- 

 tation and whose secret and insidious attacks are more to be dreaded by the 

 husbandman than the combined forces of the whole feathered tribe together. 

 For these vermin the Starhngs search with great diligence, in the ground at 

 ; the roots of plants, in orchards and meadows, as well as among buds, leaves, 

 and blossoms : and from their known voracity, the multitudes of those 

 insects which they destroy must be immense. Let me illustrate this by a 

 short computation, if we suppose each bird, on an average, to devour fifty of 

 these larvae in a day, (a very moderate allowance,) a single pair, in four 

 months, the usual time such food is sought after, will consume upwards of 

 twelve thousand. It is believed that not less than a miUion pair of these 

 birds are distributed over the whole extent of the United States in summer, 

 whose food being nearly the same, would swell the amount of vermin des- 

 'troyed to twelve thousand millions. But the number of young birds may 

 i be fairly estimated at double that of their parents, and as these are constantly 

 .fed on larvae for at least three weeks, making a grand total of sixteen thou- 

 sand two hundred millions of various insects destroyed in the space of four 

 j months by this single species ! The combined ravages of such a hideous 

 ihost of vermin would be sufficient to spread famine and desolation over a 

 wide extent of the richest and best cultivated country on earth." 



I have trespassed at too great length with only one species on your 

 columns ; I must leave the Sparrow for the present, though I had much to 

 say even for him. 



