DESTRUCTION OP BIRDS. 



fruit and vegetables instead of eating only the worthless weeds. They do most 

 damage when the fruit and crops are ripening, a period extending over about four 

 months. But what are they doing the rest of the year ? During the remaining eight 

 months they do an immense amount of good by catching grubs and other insects, 

 when there is neither fruit nor grain to steal. 



Without the birds the gardener and farmer would find it absolutely impossible 

 to grow any crops at all. Everything in the garden, trees and all, would be eaten 

 up completely by the billions of aphides, grubs, caterpillars, beetles, snails, grass- 

 hoppers and locusts that would invade the land, if their natural enemies, the 

 birds, were destroyed. You see that we are indebted to the birds for the very 

 existence of our gardens and field crops. 



Again, some birds, such as the swallow and wagtail, do not eat fruit or grain. 

 Must we kill them if they come into the garden ? Oh, no ! We must distinguish 

 between friends and foes. We must therefore be very careful never to use a means 

 for killing our enemies that will also kill our best friends. 



This brings us to our second question, " How shall we kill them ? " If we set 

 poison in the shape of poisoned wheat or pollard, we kill both friends and foes. 

 Where farmers have used poisoned pollard in order to kill rabbits, they have not 

 succeeded in exterminating them, and have been indirectly responsible for the 

 death of a great number of native birds. A great many farmers and pastoralists, 

 recognising this, have ceased to lay phosphorized pollard, and are digging up the 

 warrens, and in this way completely ridding their lands of bunny. Wherever 

 this process of extermination has been resorted to, a noticeable increase in the number 

 of native birds has been observed. We can, then, lay down this rule : Never set 

 poison for birds, but trap them and shoot them if necessary. 



Our next question is, " When shall we kill them ? " As they do good during 

 eight or nine months of the year by catching and killing troublesome insects, and 

 rob the gardener only during the three or four harvest months, we can easily answer 

 this question fairly to both parties. Kill the birds only when they are busy damaging 

 the fruit crops. Never kill them at any other time of the year. 



The third and last question to answer is, " Where shall we kill them ? " If the 

 weeds and grasses of the field that provide food for horses, cattle, and sheep, come 

 up in the garden, you pull them out and destroy them, but you do not destroy them 

 outside the garden and in the field. In the garden they are a nuisance, for they 

 choke and rob the garden plants of much plant food, therefore they must be destroyed. 

 But in the field these same grasses and weeds are valuable as fodder to grazing 

 animals, and must not be destroyed. In a like manner the birds should be treated. 

 When they are stealing eggs, or killing chickens in the farmyard, when they are 

 eating young crops or destroying fruit and grain, they must be frightened away 

 or killed, because they are a nuisance. But when they are met with in their native 

 haunts they should not be injured, for there they are doing an incalculable amount 

 of good. Wage war against them in the garden if necessary, but never push hos- 

 tilities into their own natural territory, the bush. 



A. G. EDQUIST. 



