iv OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
I may also express my firm conviction that agri- 
culture, as a profitable undertaking, is absolutely 
dependent upon the preservation of the feathered 
race. Of all the manifold servants of nature, none 
are more valuable to us than these, and none more 
worthy of protection and encouragement to the ut- 
most of our power. And it is to the best interests 
of those who till the soil that the semi-superstitious 
prejudices now so prevalent should be dispelled, and 
that birds, as a class, should receive the treatment 
which they so thoroughly deserve, and which is yet 
so generally withheld from them. 
In conclusion, I have only to express my obliga- 
tions to the many correspondents who have given me 
their kind assistance, and more especially to return 
my thanks to the Rev. F. O. Morris, the Rev. M. C. H. 
Bird, and Mr. R. J. W. Purdy, for the original and 
valuable information with which they have from time 
to time supplied me. 
ST. PETER’S, KENT. 
June, 1886. 
