I thanked the lad humbly and gratefully, resolving to be most careful. I wondered whether Missus and Missie knew as much about occultism as did master, but I dared not ask. As all well-behaved natives are aware, it is rude, and very displeasing to English gentlemen to have questions put forward about their ladies. Martin would kick me, and ayah beat me, if I gave way to such unseemly curiosity. I had caught distant glimpses of master's wife, and averted my eyes very promptly. Once I saw her pass from the bullock bandy to the traveller's bungalow wrapped in a large cloak, her head swathed in a veil of tussore silk. By day she was enclosed; invisible; a being to be silently waited upon -and never spoken to. I kept well in the background of this august household; for, being a modest youth, I knew my place. Meanwhile my daily drill in work and manners was gone through faithfully. Martin prepared me carefully and kindly for the auspicious day, when I should step, like a well-trained actor, cn to the stage of civilised existence, proving myself fit for the part in life fate called upon me to play. (To be continued.) THE TABERNACLE CALL In the morning He calls us, to bless us For with love His Divine Heart is burning MARY E. DUFFY. THE MOTHER OF FAIR LOVE The plain was filled with poppies red, The sea a sparkling cincture made, A fair-faced boy went through the plain, Of Eden come on earth again, Before the Fall. Alas! An uncoiled serpent drew its train There came a Lady through the bloom: "Sweet child, there lieth hidden doom "But I am God's dear Mother whom "Fair Lady, in this pleasant land "But flowers, and pleasant streamlets, and "And serpents gay with stripe and band "And shining jewel'ries." She took his hands, and gently drew And kissed his mouth until he knew The serpents hissed in wrath. FRANCIS M. SHAW, S.J. A THE BIRDS OF THE AIR By the Rev. P. G. KENNEDY, S.J. II. N evolutionary tyro is reported to have once asked a veteran extremist of the same school what is the function of the soft blend of various colours in the western sky at sunset, and to have received the answer: "These vesper tints, ingenuous youth, like all things else in nature, have their function: they serve to inspire man, his day's work done, with pleasant thoughts and to induce agreeable sensations that his night's repose may be more restful and refreshing." In like manner he might ask: What is the function of birds? Are they merely things of beauty to be a joy to man when they flash across his path during his daily toil, or to gladden, by their melody, his thoughts, absorbed and weighed down by the cares of life? There can be no doubt that they exercise these kindly offices for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. But the majority of men are so preoccupied with the things of earth that, having eyes, they do not raise them to behold the birds of the air, and so engrossed in their own concerns that, having ears, they do not hear the melody in the woods and the trees. But birds, independently of human attention, have a work to do, and they go about it regardless of man except in so far as he helps or hinders them. We have seen* that a bountiful Providence has garnered abundant stores of food for the birds of the air and has provided the birds with ways and means of coming by these stores. Now the further question arises: Are birds in the exercise of this function beneficial or injurious to the interests of man? In this consideration we will leave out of account See the first article of this series in the Irish Monthly for Nov., 1914. the game birds, such as the grouse, the pheasant and the partridge which are preserved as a luxury, and as such their economic value will vary with what one is able and willing to spend on sport. Where these birds are preserved and fostered they inultiply and flourish. Elsewhere, at least in this country, they are a negligible quantity. We will consider, then, the ordinary wild birds that live without having any express provision made for them by man, though at the same time they very often partake of the fruit of his labour. For the past twenty years a good deal of attention has been paid to the food of birds from an agricultural and a horticultural point of view. Several thousand records have been made from post-mortem examinations of the stomach contents; the "pellets" or castings have been examined; and the information thus acquired has been supplemented by a number of definite observations made in the field. From an entomological standpoint these records have been very complete and, taken in the aggregate, they show clearly what an important part the majority of birds play in checking the increase and lessening the ravages of many of the pests of the garden and field. Of course we do not wish to incur the enmity of entomologists by asserting that all insects are injurious. It is readily conceded that ground beetles, ladybird beetles, ichneumon flies and predaceous larvae are useful and birds are harmful in so far as they destroy them. Then there is an indifferent group of insects, such as the Scarabaeid beetles, the destruction of which does not count either for or against the birds. But the caterpillars of all kinds of moths, weevils, bark and wood-boring beetles, scale insects and others are injurious and birds are beneficial in so far as they destroy them. Now working on the results of these investigations, if we take 80 species of our commonest birds we can divide them roughly into the following seven classes: I. 43 species which are wholly innoxious and more or less strictly beneficial. II. 13 species which are occasionally injurious but with the balance of utility largely in their favour. + Cf. Supplement to the Journal of Agriculture, Vol. xv., No. 9. III. 6 species, namely the gulls, which act as scavengers in the estuaries, though they are at all times destructive to young fish. IV. 6 species which are generally considered pests of the farm and garden but with the balance of utility in their favour. The song thrush, the rook, the great and blue tits, the greenfinch and chaffinch are in this class. V. 5 species which are generally beneficial from an agricultural point of view but destructive to game and other birds. These include the hawks, the magpie and the jackdaw. VI. 4 species which may be called, in general, destructive. One is sorry to find the blackbird and the bullfinch in this class. But it must be confessed they are the bane of the fruit grower. VII. 3 species, the carrion crow, the house sparrow and the woodpigeon which are wholly destructive. The house sparrow does a certain amount of scavenging work in cities, but in the country the damage it does is enormous. From this cold classification, based on hard facts, with none of the embellishments furnished by sentiment, it is abundantly clear that half of our ordinary birds are wholly beneficial to man. Most of the remaining half have some good qualities to recommend them, while only a small percentage are found to be altogether useless or noxious from the point of view under consideration. If one had a brief for birds in general one might make out a good case for them. As among men, so among birds there are good and bad. A Utopian birdland must not be expected. The cities of the plain would not have been wiped out if the inhabitants could have furnished as large a proportion of "good" as the birds can. But then the birds scarcely need special pleading, were it not for a certain amount of general ignorance, on man's part, of their aggregate utility. Neither do they wish to institute a suit against the Irish people. They know full well that in no country in Europe are they less persecuted; they are not ruthlessly murdered in the fields; there are no professional |