THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
No: 81. 
JANUARY 1, 1802. fNo.6, of Vox.12. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, : 
yas: the Monthly Magazine for Novem- 
I ber lat, page 345, after the relation 
of the deftruétion of various quadrupeds 
and birds in France, in confequence of the 
relaxation of the game-laws, it is ob- 
ferved, that Citizen Bouqueau, Prefect 
of the Rhine and Mofelle, had iffued a 
proclamation tending to ‘check this ge- 
neral deftrution of ufeful animals. Some 
refleGtions are added, I fuppofe by the 
Editor of the Magazine, to prove, that, 
by the extermination of birds in, or their 
defertion of, certain parts’ of the Conti- 
nent, vegetation has materially fuffered. 
In addition to thefe remarks, I tranfmita 
few of my own, which have refulted from 
reading or conyerfation, and which I relate 
from memory. 3 
Some years ago Lieutenant King, the 
early nautical companion of our circum- 
navigator, Cook, lett his government of 
Norfolk Ifland,* to confult me on account 
of his health; and during my attendance 
he put into my hands his valuable MSS, 
in two folio volumes, containing an ex- . 
cellent account of the rife and progrefs of 
that infant eftablifhment, which he lived 
to fee matured, and the ifland itfelf be- 
come one of the moft populous and pro- 
dutive in the world. Confiderable ex- 
traéts from thefe volumes have been in- 
ferted in Collin’s Account of New South 
Wales. 
I often intimated to the Governor the 
utility of printing the whole MSS. as 
affording a conneéted chain of judicious 
management, not only in cultivating the 
foil, but in reforming the mind, and re- 
claiming from vicious propenfities the 
worft outcalts of fociety. | 
my friend appeared in the light of a mo- 
dern Solon, in introducing gradually 
laws, regulations, reftraints, and rewards, 
fuited to the ftate of that community he 
prefided over. ‘i 
But to revert to the cultivation of the 
foil, he found by experience, that the 
ifland was periodically vifited by adefo- 
* Since his return to his former govern~ 
ment he has been promoted to that of New 
South Wales. eet 
~ Monrpry Mac, NY. 81, 
“nearly 3000, and thefe, 
In thefe views , 
lating infe&, which confumed the tender 
corn and maize, and nearly produced a 
famine. After every other enceavour had 
failed, it occurred to him, that poultry 
would not only eat but fatten upon in- 
feéts,’ penned. his poultry upon the cul. 
tivated lands infefted by infects, and thus 
gradually extirpated them ; by degrees he 
increafed his domettic ftock of fowls to 
on a fubfequent 
vifit-from the infeéts, foon cleared the 
foil; and it has-fince been preferved in 
the moft produétive condition. 
Some modern writer; I think J, Weld, 
junior, mentions in his Travels in Ame-~ 
rica, that the crops of corn fuffer greatly 
for want of proper birds to deftroy the 
infects which infeft that continent, and 
propofes the tranfportation thither of our 
common crow, to effeét this purpofe—a 
bird that is deprecated here for its fup- 
pofed injury to the corn, a portion of 
which it certainly eats, but which philo- 
fophy will facrifice to it for the fuperior 
good it performs by deltroying thofe in- 
fects which are capable of producing infi- 
nite mifchief tothe grain and tender blade, 
I think; however, Profeflor Barton enume- 
rates our common crow among the birds 
indigenous to America. This reminds 
me here of an obfervation frequently made, 
although perhaps erroneoufly, that there 
are fewer infeéts after ashard froft in 
this country, ‘and that it affords a pre-! 
lude to a plentiful harveft. I can fup- 
pofe, from chemical knowledge, that a 
froit may render the earth more nutritive 
to the feed committed to it, but not from 
the deftruétion of infeéts, which may even 
be preferved. by the froft from the accefs 
of crows and other birds, whofe food 
they partly conftitute ; and an intelligent 
farmer aflures me, that the infects I al- 
lude to are moft numerous after a fevere 
frofty winter, as the birds are by the fe- 
verity of the weather, and hardnef§ of the 
foil, precluded from finding them, 
I imagine that our {mall birds,. that 
frequent our fruit-trees, do more good 
by deftroying infeéts, than mifchief to the 
buds or fruit. Buffon, who gives a pom- 
pous account of the falacious and impu- 
dent difpofition of the {parrows, fuppofes, 
if I miftake not, that, to nurture one neft 
3Q -of 
