on the necessity of State action for protection of wild birds. 125


morning, welcome the approach of day with all its bird voices.

The nature-lover who listens to the song of the Wood Thrush at

dawn—an anthem of calm, serene, spiritual joy sounding through

the dim woods—hears it with feelings akin to those of the devotee

whose being is thrilled by the grand and sacred music of the

sanctuary. And he who, in the still forest at evening, harkens to

the exquisite notes of the Hermit—that voice of Nature, expressing

in sweet cadences her pathos and her ineffable mystery—experiences

amid the falling shades of night emotions which must humble, chasten

and purify even the most upright and virtuous of men.”


On the utility of birds we might dwell at great length and

then be far from exhausting the subject. Few of us have formed

any conception of the influence they exercise upon our food-supply

and many products of industry. Here we must strictly confine our

remarks to their value as the guardians of our crops, our orchards

and our forests. How little do we realise what a potent factor for

good wild birds are in this connection, what the sum total of their

ceaseless activities means, and how intimately associated it is with

the security of our food supply! Were it not for the benefits con¬

ferred by wild birds it would be impossible to successfully cultivate

the majority of our crops. This statement may seem an extravagant

one, but an examination of a few instances will at once serve to show

how true it is.


We are all familiar with the greenflies on the rose, and have

some confused idea of their enormous fecundity. We probably call

to mind Professor Huxley’s computation of their amazing rate of

increase, but few of us have ever seriously considered the potential

danger of greenflies with reference to our food supply.


The late Prof. Riley, when studying the Hop Aphis, observed

thirteen generations of this species in a year. Assuming the

average number of young produced by each female to be 100, and

that every individual attained maturity and produced its full com¬

plement of young, “ the number of the twelfth brood alone (not

counting those of all the preceding broods of the same year) would

be 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (ten sextillions) of individuals.’’

Such figures fail to convey any idea of the numbers, but dealing

with these Prof. Forbush has pointed out that if these individuals



