So thinks M.Leotaud, the accomplished describer of the birds of Trinidad.

But he adds with good reason: 'I do not, however, understand how birds can protect their nestlings against ants; for so large is the number of these insects in our climes, that it would seem as if everything would become their prey.' And so everything will, unless the bird murder be stopped.

Already the parasol-ants have formed a warren close to Port of Spain, in what was forty years ago highly cultivated ground, from which they devastate at night the northern gardens.

The forests seem as empty of birds as the neighbourhood of the city; and a sad answer will soon have to be given to M.Leotaud's question:-- 'The insectivorous tribes are the true representatives of our ornithology.

There are so many which feed on insects and their larvae, that it may be asked with much reason, What would become of our vegetation, of ourselves, should these insect destroyers disappear?
Everywhere may be seen' (M.L.speaks, I presume, of five-and-twenty years ago: my experience would make me substitute for his words, 'Hardly anywhere can be seen') 'one of these insectivora in pursuit or seizure of its prey, either on the wing or on the trunks of trees, in the coverts of thickets or in the calices of flowers.