98 



Bird Notes and News 



of the rarer species. A breeding-haunfc 

 swept bare by the trader in specimens or 

 in feathers, and what becomes of past years 

 of effort ? Does anyone imagine — to look 

 for a moment outside the British Isles — 

 that if the Audubon Wardens were with- 

 drawn for a season from the Egret rookeries 

 of a southern State, the plume-hunters 

 would leave alive a bird they could slay ? 

 Or if the close-time protection were 

 removed from the Kittiwakes of English 

 cliffs, or the Terns on the shingled beaches, 

 is it to be doubted that gunner and 

 dealer would revert to the practices of 

 forty years ago and that wings torn from 

 the dying birds would be proclaimed " the 

 fashion " for the coming winter ? With- 

 draw the Watcher from the rare bird's 

 haunt, and the collector will not wait 

 for the conclusion of the War before he 

 raids it ; cease to enforce the Protection 

 law, and it will be a strong power that 

 will re-establish it in the minds of men. 



But there is another and even more 

 powerful reason why the work of the 

 Society for the Protection of Birds should 

 be pursued and supported at the present 

 time, and that is the incalculable economic 

 value and importance of bird-life. This 

 subject is one that is strangely neglected, 

 and dealt with, when touched upon, with 

 superficiality and short-sightedness. As a 

 serious study it is in its infancy ; the 

 careful investigations made by the few 

 are limited in character and are clouded 

 by the dogmatisms of the many who have 

 only partial records or pious opinions to 

 guide them. 



The main facts are in outline these : Of 

 the millions of wild birds in this country, 

 infinitely the greater number of species 

 live upon insects, wild seeds, and wild 

 berries. Some of the larger kinds prey 

 on the lesser and on small quadrupeds 

 and reptiles. The numbers of these 



latter have been reduced, mainly by man's 

 agency and efforts, the balance of nature 

 being thus upset. It has also to be 

 remembered that the enmity of generations 

 of mankind has decimated with powder 

 and shot, and trap and net and poison, 

 and by the destruction of nests and eggs, 

 the small birds of field and garden. There 

 are thousands of acres where at certain 

 seasons (not excluding the breeding- time) 

 the gun is never silent. Nests and eggs 

 are liable to a hundred dangers. Some 

 species, like the Lark and Wheatear, 

 have been trapped and netted wholesale 

 for the epicure's table ; others, like the 

 Goldfinch, have been brought in many 

 districts to the verge of extermination by 

 the bird-catcher. No mathematical ratio 

 of increase can be based on the number of 

 a bird's broods or of its eggs. 



Of the millions of small birds that feed 

 on insects and seeds, all, with scarcely 

 an exception, rear their young in spring 

 and early summer upon insect-life — the 

 grubs and caterpillars and maggots and 

 flies which constitute the greatest plague 

 with which farmer and gardener have to 

 deal and the most serious menace to the 

 food of man. A moment's consideration 

 of the numbers of nests and young, and 

 of the number of times in an hour in which 

 food is brought to the ever-hungry nest- 

 lings by the parent-birds, may suggest 

 the millions upon millions of injurious 

 insects thus destroyed ; but no computa- 

 tion can make man effectually realize 

 the gigantic total. More or less, the 

 bird is at the same task of destruction 

 throughout the year. Not one species 

 but destroys some pest, animal or veget- 

 able ; certainly not, on the other hand, 

 one single bird that fives, wholly or 

 chiefly, on cultivated grain or fruit. 



The matter of weeds and their seeds 

 may be left on one side, though the 



