90 Mr. J. Buckland on 



hurriedly revoked and the exile recalled. And fortnnatd 

 indeed was it for the Island o"f Bourbon that the bird waia 

 not beyond recall. 



Daring the year 1861 the harvests of France gave an 

 unusually poor return, and a Commission was appointed at 

 the instance of the Minister of Agriculture to investigate the 

 cause of the deficiency. By this Commission the deficiency 

 was attributed to the ravages of insects which it was the 

 function of certain birds to check. These birds, it appeared, 

 had been shot, snared, and trapped throughout the country in 

 such numbers that but little repressive influence had been 

 exerted upon the insects. In one department of the east of 

 France the value of the wheat destroyed in a single 3'ear was 

 estimated at 5,000,000 francs. 



For some years prior to 1877 vast numbers of red-winged 

 Blackbirds were poisoned in the spring and autumn round 

 the cornfields of Nebraska. This was done in the belief that 

 the Blackbirds were damaging the crops, especially the wheat* 

 Great numbers of Prairie Chicken, Quail, Plover, and various 

 other insect-eating species were destroyed at the same time 

 by eating the poisoned grain. Then came 1877, and with it 

 Nemesis. The locusts appeared in countless numbers, and 

 Nebraska mourned. Hardly a field of grain escaped. 



An astounding number of bird-skins are collected annually 

 for hat decorations in Russian Siberia. In 1895 the ravages 

 of two species of cut-worms and some ten species of locusts 

 produced a famine in the region of Ekaterinburg, which is in 

 Russian Siberia* The local Society of Natural Sciences 

 inquired into the cause which had permitted such a numerous 

 propagation of insect pests, and reported that it was due to 

 +ho almost complete destruction of birds, most of which had 

 been killed and sent abroad by wagon-loads for millinery 

 purposes. 



Though I could give a hundred cases similar to the fore- 

 going, I must rely on the few 1 have cited to convince you 

 that the whole.sule destruction of birds is Burely followed by 

 disaster to man. 



