Utility and Egonomy of Birds 
ance rendered by birds to forestry and agri- 
culture, to say nothing of the dietetic value 
of Game-birds and Wildfowl. That the farmers 
and their “‘expert advisers’’ were, however, 
slow to regard the birds as the protectors of 
their crops, the following notes will show. 
One of the features of the War was the 
breaking-up of thousands of acres of pasture 
land. This innovation revealed the presence 
of a corresponding amount of insect pests 
such as wire-worms; yet, oblivious of the fact 
that insect plagues can be dealt with effec- 
tually only by birds, their indiscriminate 
destruction was recommended by the “‘ expert 
advisers’’ of the Board of Agriculture. In 
view of the fact that insectivorous birds may 
also eat grain, these wiseacres issued a ban 
against all birds, regardless of the acknow- 
ledged fact that, though birds may take a 
proportion of fruit or grain at harvest time, 
they more than justify their existence by the 
quantity of injurious insects they consume at 
other seasons of the year. Any thoughtful 
mind must be impressed by the wisdom of 
our Wild Birds Protection Acts, which pro- 
30 
