At all seasons they are a beauty and a joy, but when 
Spring 
Comes forth, her work of gladness to contrive, 
With all her recklesB birds upon the wing, 
they atlract and charm us most. No sooner does “jocund day stand lip-toe on 
the misty mountain top,” than their songs begin, and during all our waking hours 
their labors and their sports, their carols and flights delight us and our children, 
and give to our homes the most delightful charm. To punish the man who, from 
mere love of taking life, robs the landscape of one of its most attractive beauties, 
and the contemplative mind of one of its purest delights, is amoDg the objects of 
this bill. 
The passage of this measure is not, however, urged solely or mainly upon this 
ground. There is an argument in its favor of more practical force, and which will 
appeal to every agriculturist, horticulturist, and pomologist in the State. 
The great value of our small birds, as destroyers of insects, worms, and the 
larvae of insects, is arresting the notice of the farmers of the State. The attention 
of the committee has been called to this subject by the discussions of the Madison 
Township Farmers’ Club, of Licking county, an association of intelligent and 
practical tillers of the soil, and upon their petition House Bill No. 430 was intro- 
duced. The well known fact that it has become almost impossible to produce a fair 
and perfect apple, plum, cherry, or peach, that our fruit trees are short-lived and 
sickly, is attributed by the Madison farmers to the increasing hordes of destructive 
worms and insects, and the increase of these pests to the destruction of the small 
birds, which are their natural enemies. The same cause is assigned for the in- 
creasing uncertainty of the wheat crop, and the great care and labor requisite for 
the protection of the young and tender corn from the ravages of bugs and worms. 
The passage of this bill is therefore urged as a means of insuring and increas- 
ing our crops of fruit and grain, and of lessening the unrequited toil of the hus- 
bandman. 
All the birds above named or protected by this bill, except the finches, are 
insectivorous. And we ask the attention of the House to some brief extracts from 
works on ornithology, showing their habits. 
The first on the list is the wren. Wilson, in his American Ornithology, says 
of this bird : “ The immense number of insects which this sociable little bird 
removes from the garden and fruit trees, ought to endear him to every cultivator.” 
Barton says of the same bird : “ The esculent vegetables of a whole garden 
may perhaps be preserved from the depredations of different species of insects by 
ten or fifteen pairs of these small birds.” 
