Bird Notes and News 



35 



Economic Ornithology. 



BIRDS BENEFICIAL TO AGRICULTURE. 



The Trustees of the British Museum have decided 

 that the time is opportune for stimulating interest 

 in the benefits conferred by Birds on agriculture. 

 They have accordingly given instructions for a 

 small exhibit, in the Central Hall of the Natural 

 History Museum, of a selection of birds which are 

 useful to farmers and gardeners by destroying 

 injurious insects or such animals as rats and mice. 

 The exhibit will be explained in a valuable hand- 

 book, written and illustrated by the well-known 

 naturalist and artist, Mr. F. W. Frohawk. It will 

 appear from the facts set forth that it is hardly 

 possible to exaggerate the beneficial results pro- 

 duced by certain birds, which thus " require pro- 

 tection and encouragement throughout the British 

 Islands." It would be an admirable thing if 

 every natural history museum in the country would 

 follow the example of the British Museum. 



PROS AND CONS. 



By way of helping further in popularising know- 

 ledge, the R.S.P.B. are about to issue a small 

 pocket-book, " An A B C of Inland Birds," giving 

 in the shortest space possible such concise and wholly 

 non-teclinical description of some fifty common birds 

 as may enable the unlearned observer to recognise 

 them readily ; together with epitomised pros and con-s 

 of their economic services to man ; and also their 

 local and covmtry names. 



For the last year or two there has been more 

 discussion than ever as to the food and the economic 

 value of this bird and that bird, which shall we kill 

 and which keep alive, which shall children be taught 

 to destroy and which to preserve ; which should 

 the law protect and which ban. But the primary 

 bed-rock question, which the law and the prophets 

 alike have neglected, is, How many of these birds 

 can the man in the street or in the field, or the child 

 in the meadow or the lane, identify with certainty. 



THE CATAPULT. 



A movement is on foot in Jamaica to suppress 

 the use of the catapult ; and if no other practical 

 method can be ensured it is proposed to prohibit 



the importation into the island of the elastic 

 used in making them, said not to be employed for 

 any other ptu-pose. " Everywhere throughout the 

 world," as the Jamaica Times says, "the planter 

 has to dread the harm done to his crops by insects, 

 but in the tropics this is particularly the case. . . 

 Mr. Ritchie, the Government Entomologist, as 

 he goes from one Branch Agricultural Society to 

 another lecturing, is doing good work by making 

 clear to his audiences what folly it is to stand by 

 and see the cultivators' friends thus slaughtered." 

 It is not well enough vmderstood by police or 

 public in Great Britain that the use of catapults 

 throughout the close season is wholly illegal, and 

 that no air-gim may be used without a gun licence. 



VALUE OF THE MAGPIE. 



The Right Rev. A. H. Mathew sends the follow- 

 ing interesting note on the Magpie : 



" This handsome bird, usually slain by all game- 

 keepers, is a great eater of coleoptera. I have 

 seen a pet specimen, a very amusing talker, swallow 

 five of the large purple garden beetles in succession, 

 ^nd after them some thirty or forty woodlice. 

 The same bird is very partial to small snails, which 

 it swallows whole, and it enjoys nothing better 

 than a mouse." 



Dr. Mathew adds a word for the Wood-Pigeon 

 as a great devourer of the destructive small white 

 slugs, which do such mischief in cabbage fields, 

 etc., and of weed-seeds. 



NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. 



All who are interested in the preservation of 

 animal life, and the work and influence of our great 

 national museum to that end, wUl welcome the 

 appointment of Dr. Sydney F. Harmer, F.R.S., «is 

 Director of the British Museum (Natural History), 

 and of Mr. C. E. Fagan, I.S.O.. the Assistant 

 Secretary, as his aide-de-camp. Dr. Harmer has 

 been Keeper of Zoology for the past ten years, and 

 while his distinguished services to science have 

 secured national recognition, his work for the pro- 

 tection of living creatures has won the gratitude 

 of Bird Protectors. 



