S 8 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



will be by hundreds of thousands of pounds. Such an 

 inquiry would at least indicate where our present course of 

 conduct is wrong, and would possibly lead to new and more 

 beneficial legislation in the future. 



The subject is one that demands constant study and 

 inquiry, for a species of bird that at one period is distinctly 

 beneficial may in a very few years become equally injurious. 

 There are many cases on record of the change in feeding 

 habits due in some cases to a great increase in the number 

 of a particular species and a consequent scarcity of food. 

 In other cases there is an abundance of a particular kind 

 of food, due to artificial cultivation, and the birds have not 

 been slow to avail themselves of the changed condition. 

 Such points as these require very careful consideration in 

 any attempt rightly to estimate the value of any particular 

 species. 



Unfortunately, in this country we have no continued 

 systematic study in operation on a large scale. Hitherto 

 the matter has been left to the private individual, but 

 what is now required is continuous work, judiciously 

 planned, and carried out with every care. Such investiga- 

 tions are beyond the means of most : the labour alone 

 of recording and tabulating the results obtained is no 

 mean task. Government action, at the present time, 

 scarcely seems likely, but it might possibly be within the 

 range of practical politics, with some financial assistance 

 from the Development Fund, to found a Chair of Economic 

 Ornithology, in connection with one of our universities, 

 where such work might be carried out. Of one thing I 

 am sure, viz., that it would prove of great scientific interest 

 and of inestimable value to that all-important and increasing 

 community, the food providers of this country. 



