AGRICULTURAL DAMAGE BY VERMIN AND BIRDS 77 



farmer, a joy and healthy sport to the owner, a delicate food 

 for the invalid, a cement to the friendship between the 

 classes. It is so on some estates ; why not everywhere ? " 

 It is certainly remarkable that in leaflet No. 12, issued by 

 the Board of Agriculture, commending the activities of 

 Rooks, Starlings, Jackdaws, and Plovers, no mention should 

 be made of the Pheasant, whose utility in destroying wire- 

 worms is so great that Mr Gunther's advice to any farmer 

 of wireworm-stricken land near a game farm would be to 

 plough up the land and beg the game farmer to put as 

 many Pheasants on it as possible. His opinion, that 

 Pheasants properly reared are a source of economy to the 

 farmer, is fully confirmed in a report by the Commissioners 

 on Fisheries and Game of Massachusetts. 



We agree, as advocated in the Report, that " the Lap- 

 wing, perhaps the farmers' best friend, should be universally 

 protected," but we cannot concur in the suggestion that " the 

 taking of its eggs should be penalized." It has been found 

 from experience that the taking of Plovers' eggs up to a 

 certain date, say 15th April, is actually beneficial to the 

 species, since the broods, thus perforce hatched later, find a 

 greater quantity of insect food available for their successful 

 upbringing to a useful maturity. 



The Report does not mention the Partridge, which is so 

 universally esteemed as the farmers' ally that we were 

 recently surprised to learn that the farmers in Sussex regard 

 the species as a serious nuisance on account of the havoc 

 that it makes amongst their trifolium during the winter. 



A point well worthy of investigation is raised by Mr 

 Gunther when dealing with the Hare. He concedes that 

 " in numbers they do grievous damage," but finds that " the 

 case against them in reasonable numbers has often been 

 very considerably overstated," and he points out that " Hares 

 which live on the land automatically return to the soil a 

 certain proportion of the value of the damaged agricultural 

 produce in the form of manure." The value of sheep in this 

 respect has been accurately determined, and a similar 

 research upon the economy of the Hare, especially in respect 

 of the percentage of nitrogen returned to the soil, is 



