SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



direction and placed the birds in three groups — injurious, neutral, and 

 beneficial. On the Ist of July, 1885, the United States Congress established 

 a section of Economic Ornithology, under the direction of Dr. D. Hart 

 Merriam, to carry out investigations, including inquiry into the food habits, 

 distribution, and migrations of North American birds and mammals in 

 relation to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. In 1896 this branch 

 became a division, under the broader title of the Division of Biological 

 Survey. 



In the offices of this division at Washington there are thousands of 

 stomachs of birds which have been examined and their contents tabulated, so 

 that the food habits can be determined, and their value as insect destroyers or 

 otherwise, demonstrated. Maps are prepared showing the migration and range 

 of the different birds and animals ; and, while the protection of useful ones is 

 advocated, the methods of dealing with noxious ones are also closely studied. 



The Hungarian Central Office for Ornithology was instituted in 1894 by 

 Count Albon Caaky, Minister of Public Instruction, and after having been 

 an appendage of the Royal Museum for some years, it was transfen-ed to the 

 Department of Agriculture. In 1901 Ignacz Dardnye, Minister of Agri- 

 culture, issued a circular decree, which is one of the most complete and well- 

 thought-out bird and animal protection acts in existence. In 1908 the 

 writer met Dr. Otto Herman who had charge of the Office for Ornithology in 

 Budapest, who«e untiring energy has made for such successful protection ; 

 not only did he protect all the useful birds, but he showed the people all 

 through the country their value. A map was compiled in which were marked 

 150 stations scattered all over Hungary, where professional ornithologists 

 recorded the migration of as many species as possible ; besides this, 1,300 

 State foresters recorded the movements of the commoner species. 



Artificial nesting-boxes were found so useful to all birds that nest in holes 

 in trees, that a factory for making them was started ; and fourteen years ago 

 (1906) the Minister ordered the Hungarian Central Office for Ornithology to 

 present a scheme for the supply of these artificial nesting-boxes to the State 

 forests, comprising 5,000,000 acres. This work was carried out. 



History of Protection in other Countries. 



In 1845 the protection of mid-European insectivorous birds was advocated 

 by Edward Buldamus, a German enthusiast, and at the initiation of 

 representative German farmers and foresters, an agreement was later made 

 between the latter and the Austrian and Hungarian authorities. This wa& 

 followed by a number of zoologists, in 1873, framing rules for the protection 

 of bii'ds of economic value. Further effiarts were made in 1876, which 

 resulted in an international conference meeting in Vienna in 1884. Bird 

 life protection during the next few years attracted fresh countries to its 

 standard, and at a meeting in Paris, in 1895, at which numerous countries 

 were represented, an international convention for the protection of birds. 



