888 A. E. Verritt — The Bermuda Islands. 



FIRST SCHEDULE. 



The Eed Bird, Blue Bird, Ground Dove, Chick of the Village, Quail, Partridge, 

 Tropic Bird, Boatswain Bird or Long Tail, Humming Bird, King Fisher, Wood 

 Pecker, Rice Bird, Crane, Heron, Gold Finch, Mocking Bird. 



The acts named in the Second Schedule, as repealed by the above, 

 are the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1881, 1892, and 1894. 



It will be noticed that several of the resident or breeding birds 

 now existing here are not protected, viz : — 



The Cat-bird, Wheat-ear, European Starling (believed to be 

 already naturalized in small numbers), English Sparrow, and Euro- 

 pean Tree Sparrow. 



The Cat-bird is undoubtedly of great use in destroying vast num- 

 bers of grubs and caterpillars which constitute a large part of its 

 food, and this should more than offset the small amount of damage 

 it does to small fruits. But it is so common and so well able to take 

 care of itself that there seems to be no danger of its extermination, 

 at present. 



The European Wheat-ear is a small insectivorous bird, and there- 

 fore very useful. It is now quite common in some parts of the 

 islands, especially near St. George's, and deserves full protection. 

 The English Sparrow is extremely abundant and needs no protec- 

 tion, for it has " come to stay." Formerly a bounty was paid for its 

 destruction, but to no good purpose. It destroys great numbers of 

 caterpillars and other insects as food for its young in the breeding 

 season, which is here a large part of the year. Therefore it prob- 

 ably does more good than harm, unless it destroys the eggs of other 

 and better birds to an injurious extent. There is little if any occa- 

 sion to protect the Humming Bird and Rice Bird, for they are only 

 found as migrants from North America, and the former, at least, is 

 excessively rare, and merely an accidental visitor. The other birds 

 scheduled are in need of all the protection that they can have, 

 though the Wood-peckers are only found as rare migrants. A 

 general clause, providing protection for all land birds, excepting 

 perhaps the English Sparrow, would seem to be desirable, for the 

 numerous migrating birds do a large amount of good, even during 

 the short time that they remain, by destroying insects and the seeds 

 of noxious weeds. 



It seems to me a mistake to offer a bounty for Crows, for there are 

 probabty not a dozen pairs left <>n the islands, moreover it is a bird 

 that generally does much more good than harm, especially in a place 



