“This bird comes to us from warmer lands toward the beginning of May, and leaves us in September. It builds no nest, imitating in this various nocturnal birds of prey. Some hole in the ground or among broken stones, at the foot of a tree or a rock, and usually taken just as it happens to be, suffices to hold the bird’s eggs, which are two or three in number, white with tawny and bluish spots. “In closing let me beg you to remember what we owe these big-throated birds that hunt insects on the wing, and more especially the swifts and swallows, who defend our granaries and gardens, our wardrobes and our very persons. What would you think of any one who, possessing the terrible secret of creating by the bushel moths, gnats, mosquitoes, weevils, and other destructive insects, should let loose a swarm of these creatures in the air about us?” “I should say hanging was too good for him,” answered Louis. “But that is exactly what any one does who kills a swallow. It is true he does not create moths and mosquitoes and other insects, but he saves the lives of those that the swallow would have eaten, and thus he is guilty of as grave an offense as if he had created them on purpose to turn them loose on us. He does a wicked deed, for he receives with deadly shotgun the pretty, joyous creature, messenger of spring and sunshine, that comes trustfully asking his hospitality and the permission to build its nest under the eaves of his house. He causes famine, for he encourages the multiplication of those devouring hordes that levy every year on our farm products a tax that amounts to thousands of millions of francs in its total sum and is constantly increasing as insect-eating birds decrease. A wicked deed, I say, a deed which causes famine—that is what is really done by the murderer of swallows.” CHAPTER XXXI THE BIRD’S BEAK “There are many other small birds that live almost exclusively on insects, and in so doing render a great service to agriculture. A full account of them all would take too long; and, besides, you are familiar with the greater number, seeing them daily in the woods, fields, orchards, and gardens. I will confine myself, therefore, to the chief difference between insect-eaters and birds that live on seeds and grain; and then a glance at some of the habits of the most important species will complete our rapid review.