Bird Notes and News 



87 



that of the home workers, essential to the 

 success of the campaign abroad. 



Nor is it possible to ignore the unconscious 

 ministry of the wild birds of the battlefields 

 — the Nightingales and Warblers and Black- 

 birds singing in wood and garden, the Skylarks 

 rising up over the naked horror of " No 

 Man's Land " (as in the picture Mr. Thorburn 

 has painted for the Society), the Swallows 

 nesting in the dug-outs, " the Kestrels 

 hovering by day. And the little Owls that 



call by night," the very Sparrows in the 

 ruined walls ; the strange birds and the 

 familiar birds, heedJess of thunder of gun 

 and of shock and shell, and perishing, as 

 they must have done, by myriads in the 

 poisoned and shattered forests. For every 

 moment of interest and relief afforded to 

 many a man in the intolerable waiting 

 hours ; for every inspiring and inspiriting 

 vision of home that has risen on the wings 

 and songs of birds — surely for this too we 

 are debtors to the First Flying Corps. 



Economic Ornithology. 



In the Journal of the Board of Agriculture for 

 September, 1918, Dr. W. E. CoUinge publishes 

 the result of " Some Recent Investigations on 

 the Food of Certain Wild Birds." Commenting 

 on the woeful neglect of the study in this country. 

 Dr. Collinge states that " on the one hand we 

 have a rapidly decreasing number of insectivorous 

 birds, and on the other hand a large increase of 

 the few species that are known to be injurious." 

 The subject has, he observes, been treated 

 largely in a casual and unscientific manner, 

 and in his own former work he adopted the 

 numerical method of estimating contents of crop 

 and stomach, whereas the only method scientifi- 

 cally accurate is volumetric measurement (by 

 bulk). 



It is agreeable to find that, as usual, further 

 investigation is generally speaking favourable 

 to the birds. Dr. Collinge revises to a consider- 

 able extent his opinion of the Mistle-Thrush, 

 which he now regards as on the whole beneficial 

 in spite of depredations in the orchard : " the 

 number of injurious insects and slugs that it 

 destroys more than counterbalance the injuries 

 it inflicts." With regard to the Skylark the new 

 analysis " no longer leaves us in doubt as to the 

 true economic position it should occupy. The 

 injuries it does bj' damaging seed corn and other 

 crops are far outweighed by the benefits it 

 confers in destroying injurioiis insects, . . . the 

 bulk of its food consisting of weed seeds and 

 injurious insects." 



[It is to be hoped the Board will consequently 

 withdraw its leaflet in which Larks are dealt with 

 as " Farm Vermin."] 



Dr. CoUinge's conclusions are as follows : 



" Of the nine species of birds treated — 



a. Two are distinctly injurious, viz., the House 

 Sparrow and the Wood-Pigeon. 



b. Two are too numerous, and consequentlj' 

 injurious, viz.. Rook and Sparrow-Hawk 



c. One is locally too numerous, viz., the Mistle- 

 Thrush. 



d. Four are highly beneficial, viz.. Skylark, 

 Green Woodpecker, Kestrel, and Lapwing. 



" In the interests of agriculture it is very 

 desirable that strong repressive measures be 

 taken against the species mentioned in section 



a, and for the time being all protection withheld 

 from those mentioned in sections h and c : whilst 

 every protection should be given to the foiar 

 species mentioned in section d." 



It may be useful to add that no one of the 

 species named in o, h, or c is protected by the 

 Act at any time of the year against owners or 

 tenants of land nor have they any protection 

 under local Orders ; the Mistle-Thrush has 

 limited protection in four counties. The Kestrel 

 has no mention in the Act, but is protected in the 

 majority of counties by Orders. The Skylark, 

 Woodpecker, and Lapwing are on the schedule 

 of birds fully protected during the close-time. So 

 far as the nine species are concerned, therefore, 

 it appears the old Act does not go very far astray. 



FOOD OF THE WOOD-PIGEON. 



The same Journal, in its Avigust number, 

 devoted considerable space to details of the 

 contents of the crop of a single Wood-Pigeon, 

 showing the amount of grain and greenstufi 

 eaten, and going on to " imagine what the sum 

 total of damage wovild be " by hundreds of 

 Pigeons. Whether or not Dr. Collinge would 

 consider this one of the individual and partial 

 investigations which he deprecates as hindering 

 rather than helping, it meets with a rejoinder in 

 the November Journal from a second investigator 

 (Armstrong College, Newcastle), who gives the 

 contents of another Wood-Pigeon crop as con- 

 sisting of 8,000 seeds of a troublesome weed. 

 " It would seem therefore," says the Journal, 

 " that the bird may sometimes be of some agri- 

 cultural use." 



OUR FRIEND THE OWL. 



In the Gleaner (Jamaica) of September 28th, 1918, 

 Mr. Archibald Ritchie, Government Entomologist, 

 makes a forcible appeal for the protection of the 

 Jamaica Owls as " among our most valuable 

 natural allies in our ' Food will win the war ' 

 campaign." Mr. Ritchie mentions that a short 

 time ago a cultivator applied to him for a permit 

 to kill Owls, on the ground that they were descending 

 on his com and destroying it. A similar plea was 

 put up in an English village recently. Needless 

 to say, in each case mice were taking the com and 

 the Owls were catching the mice. 



