Bird Notes and News 



117 



the birds which keep down plagues of 

 insects, grubs, and wireworms, crops may 

 be imperilled at the very outset. In short, 

 let us kill the sparrows, who are the source 

 of the mischief, but let every authority 

 concerned see to it that it really is the 

 sparrow we kill, and tliat all other destruction 

 shall be discourau'cd and punished. — The 

 Observer, Nov. 25, 1917. 



THE WAR FARMER'S ALLY. 



A FEW years ago it was reported that a great 

 diminution was taking place in the number 

 of lapwings in Great Britain, and the Board 

 of Agriculture thought the subject important 

 enough to make the matter one of inquiry. 

 The evidence which it obtained from its 

 honorary correspondents was to the effect 

 that in 47 districts of England there was a 

 marked decrease, and in only 12 an increase ; 

 while in Scotland a decrease was reported 

 from 24 districts and an increase from only 

 5. No details of locality were given in the 

 magazine of the Board, but it was generally 

 indicated that the decrease was due to an 

 increasingly systematic collection of the 

 eggs for marketing ; and there is a presump- 

 tion that this took plauce in the districts best 

 situated for getting the eggs to market. 



There is a presumption, moreover, that the 

 lapwing, like some other species, has suffered 

 from the war, and that the process of re- 

 duction noted before the war has been 

 accelerated. It will be remembered, that 

 last spring the public were officially urged, in 

 the interest of food conservation, to make 

 the fullest possible use of the eggs of wild 

 birds. The lap^nng was indicated as furnish- 

 ing the best eggs of ail, and the merits of the 

 eggs of the various species of gulls were 

 preached from high quarters. That these 

 official urgings were responded to in the case 

 of the gulls I know, and it is probable that 

 they stimulated attention to the lapwing, 

 which produces better eggs for the purposes 

 of the table than any gufl . 



Watching a flock of lapwings at food on a 

 ploughed field the other da}', 1 saw reason to 

 think short sighted the policy which urged the 

 consumption of this bird's eggs in the interest 

 of food supply. The lapwing is one of those 

 rare birds against whose character as an ally 



of the agriculturist no word has ever been 

 breathed. Its works are all good, and there 

 is not even the usual little balance of evil. 

 It does not eat corn ; it leaves green crops 

 severely alone. Its quest is solely for animal 

 food. 



An Ill-Balanced Transaction. 



The field referred to was one of those grass 

 parks from whose conversion into corn lands 

 we expect so much. Quite clearly the lap- 

 wings were finding it rich ground, and it is 

 a well-known fact that from their standpoint, 

 and that of all grub-eating birds, there is no 

 ground to equal grass-land which has just 

 been broken up. Such ground is richer in 

 vermin than any other. It forms a great 

 sanctuary for the larvae of those insects which 

 have, so to put it, a three j'ears' course in 

 the ground. In regularly cultivated land the 

 ground is thoroughly disturbed by plough, 

 harrow, and cultivator every year, and a large 

 proportion of its larval inhabitants are either 

 directly destroyed or exposed to the insect- 

 eating birds. In the grass-land they accumu- 

 late, and the grass-field, as a matter of 

 certainty, will contain the grubs in three- 

 yearly stages of development of such insects 

 as the click beetle, known in the grub stage 

 as the wire-worm. Wire-worms are prime 

 favourites of the lapwings, and in the 

 over-turned turf they were picking out 

 the tough dainties with tlie utmost zest and 

 enthusiasm. 



The farmers who last spring turned over 

 grass had practical demonstration in the fol- 

 lowing months of the great abundance in such 

 ground of insect pests. In some cases entire 

 fields of young grain were destroyed and had 

 tp be resown. 



There are four eggs in the lapwing's 

 brood, and a very moderate appetite \\ould 

 dispose of the four for breakfast. Each of 

 these ijotential lapwings was capable cf 

 destroying many thousands of ■wire-wornip, 

 leather-jackets, and other noxious insect 

 larvse ; and each grub in the thousands is 

 itself capable of destroying more food than we 

 can get in a lapwing's egg. Economically 

 considered, the destruction of the eggs, even 

 for food, of so entirely useful a bud as 

 the lapwing, is sheer nonsense, — Dundee 

 Advertiser, Nov. 21, 1917, 



