2—BIRDS AS CROP PROTECTORS 
T is the considered opinion of the greatest 
| modern ornithologists that insectivorous 
birds are man’s best friends, since they 
have been proved to be protectors of his 
crops. But, with the crying need for the 
maximum production of food, an outcry 
against birds in general was only to be ex- 
pected. Would that the detractors of the 
birds’ characters had been silenced for ever ! 
But though this pious wish is far from being 
fulfilled, it is satisfactory to be able to record 
that, as the War continued, the inimical 
attitude of the agriculturist towards birds 
showed signs of abatement. Economic ornith- 
ology has not yet been sufficiently studied 
in Great Britain, but the laborious work of 
such investigators as Messrs, W. E. Collinge, 
C. F. Archibald, J. Gilmour, F. V. Theobald, 
H. S. Leigh, R. T. Gunther, and Miss Laura 
Florence all goes to prove the valuable assist- 
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