(Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 66.] 1917 [June. 



A CHAIR OF ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY. 

 By William Berry, B.A, LL.B., M.B.O.U. 



The following observations are submitted to the readers of 

 the Scottish Naturalist with the object of supporting, however 

 slightly, the proposals made by Dr Walter E. Collinge, in 

 the article from his hand which is reprinted in the March 

 issue from the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society. 

 The thanks of all who are interested in this most important 

 subject are due to Dr Collinge for his painstaking investiga- 

 tions, and to the editors for giving Scottish ornithologists an 

 opportunity of acquainting themselves with his conclusions. 



Dr Collinge rightly points out that the preservation of 

 wild birds must be undertaken in no spirit of indiscriminating 

 philanthropy, or philorny, if the word may be permitted ; but 

 that the decision whether any particular bird should be 

 afforded a measure of protection, or, on the other hand, 

 should be outlawed, and slain at sight by every patriotic 

 citizen, ought only to be come to as the result of patient and 

 laborious investigation of its feeding habits, by competent 

 and unprejudiced observers. 



Hitherto such researches can hardly be said to have been 

 made by observers who had not any special theorem which 

 they desired to establish. Take the case of the Woodpigeon, 

 66 Q 



