THE USEFUL BIRDS OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA. 201 



wronged by one individual, condemns a whole race. It would 

 be just as rational to take the standard for the himian race 

 from highwaymen and pirates as to judge all Hawks by the 

 deeds of a few. Even when the industrious Hawks are 

 observed beating tirelessly back and forth over the harvest 

 fields and meadows, or the Owls are seen at dusk flying 

 silently about the nurseries and orchards, busily engaged in 

 hunting the voracious rodents which destroy alike the grain. 



Black-fronted Dottrel. 



produce, young trees, and eggs of birds, the curses of the 

 majority of farmers and sportsmen go with them, and their 

 total extinction would be welcomed. How often are the 

 services rendered to man misunderstood through ignorance ! 

 The birds of prey, the majority of which labour day and 

 night to destroy the enemies of the husbandman, are 

 persecuted unceasingly, while that gigantic fraud — the house 



