THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRDS, ETC. 
245 
and are the most widely distributed. It is, therefore, 
easy to conceive the usefulness of the bird, when I state 
that three-fourths of the most numerous classes are 
either partially or wholly insectivorous; besides which, 
as I have before said, many birds daily devour from 
three to four times their own weight of insect-food. 
Take, for instance, the quantity devoured by a single pair 
of Titmice in a day, and we find it amounts on an 
average to 2000 insects per diem; this, by simple calcu¬ 
lation, gives us a yearly total of 730,000 insects which 
are destroyed by this pair. Add to this the fact that one 
pair of Titmice will produce in one season no fewer than 
ten young birds, whose yearly nourishment will, together 
with that of the parent birds, give a grand total of about 
four millions of insects. This statement proves to us the 
utility of one species alone, and also that the amount of 
good done by the entire bird-world must be incalculable. 
It is, if not striking, still worthy of remark, that the 
most noxious creatures of all classes are principally 
destroyed by birds. In support of this assertion I will 
call the attention of my readers to several species of 
insects which are especially destructive, and then 
enumerate those birds which are their direst enemies. 
My readers have assuredly heard, or read, of the 
depredations committed by locusts, as well as of their 
insatiable appetites. I have often observed this creature, 
which the Arabs call the “ leaf-stripper,” while devas¬ 
tating the fields or forests of Central Africa. With the 
exception of the feathered tribe the enemies of the locust 
are limited to a few species of monkeys, mice, squirrels, 
hedgehogs, lizards, snakes, and frogs. The numbers 
devoured by these creatures, when taken altogether, is 
but “a drop in the ocean,” when compared to the 
