266 
OUR* HOME BIRDS. 
pillars, flies, and grubs. It has been calculated that 
a single pair of these birds destroy on the average 
not less than five hundred of these pests daily ; a 
labor which could hardly be surpassed by a man, 
even if he gave his whole time to the task. More- 
over, the man could not be as successful at so small 
a cost ; for, setting aside the value of his time and 
the amount of a laborer’s daily wages, he could not 
reach the denser and loftier twigs on which the cat- 
erpillars revel, and which the titmouse can traverse 
with perfect ease. No man can investigate a tree, 
and clear it of the insect hosts that constantly be- 
leaguer it, without doing some damage to the buds 
and young leaves by his rough handling ; whereas 
the chickadee trips along the branches, peeps under 
every leaf, swings himself round upon his perch, 
spies out every insect, and secures it with a peck so 
rapid that it is hardly perceptible. 
“ 4 In some observations made on the habits of this 
and some other birds in Paris, it was found that the 
titmouse destroys, at the lowest computation, over 
two hundred thousand eggs alone of noxious insects 
in the course of a year. That one small bird is thus 
able to accomplish so much good in destroying these 
myriads of vermin is an appeal to the good sense of 
the farmer, for the protection of the whole class, that 
should not be slighted.’ 
