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BIRD-LIFE. 
the Alps/ “the representatives of life, brightness, and 
joyous movement, throughout the universal globe. Without 
them the mountains would he desolate and utterly devoid 
of charm. The first thing man seeks is life ; inanimate 
masses crush his spirit, the lifeless desert saddens him. 
Imagine our woods and meadows, rocks and streams, 
robbed of their merry tribe of feathered inhabitants, and 
we at once lose one of those links which connect us with 
the lower organic and inorganic world.” What birds are 
to man beyond this I will seek to depict further on. It 
suffices at present to prove, by sheer statistics, the benefits 
he receives from them when he treats them really as the 
“lord of the creation” ought to do. 
Tschudi looks upon birds as a connecting link 
existing between the highest and lowest conditions of 
life. This view must be taken in the widest sense. 
They stand between the two, working on either side; in 
the one case beneficially, in the other the reverse. The 
true guardians of equilibrium in the animal kingdom, 
they avert and prevent the dangerous attacks of the 
lower orders of animated nature, especially the super¬ 
abundant increase of insect life. This mighty army, 
which preys even upon itself, is really only in * some 
degree kept at bay by the feathered tribe. To permit the 
insect-world to make undue head-way would amount to 
destroying Nature, for, in that case, the plant-world, on 
which her existence depends, would cease to exist. The 
whole of remaining creation combined would not be able 
to arrest the destruction caused by insect-life so effectually 
as birds. Up to the present time we are acquainted with 
about 1400 species of mammals and 800 of reptiles, whereas 
the birds amount to 8000. It is now a recognized fact 
that insectivorous birds form the most numerous class, 
