CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



81 



only California, but the whole world, has 

 been wasteful of its wild life resources 

 for the last fifty years, and that it is 

 vitally important that the people every- 

 where understand the urgent necessity for 

 conservation measures even more rigid 

 than those already in force, in order that 

 California may regain, in part, what her 

 people have been so prodigally wasting for 

 so many years. On the biologist is laid 

 the role of leadership in the campaign 

 for the preservation of native fauna and 

 on him must blame for ignorant and de- 

 structive popular action, legislative or 

 otherwise, inevitably fall. — Philip Jan- 



NEY. 



THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS. 



In order to exhibit the utility of native 

 natural enemies of birds and to show 

 the misfortunes that might follow their 

 extermination, as well as to set forth the 

 conditions under which they might need 

 restraint, and to point out those excep- 

 tions that are believed to be most destruc- 

 tive, a bulletin has been issued by the 

 State Board of Agriculture of Massachu- 

 setts. This paper, in the Economic Biol- 

 ogy series, bulletin No. 3, is entitled "The 

 natural enemies of birds," and is by Ed- 

 ward Howe Forbush, State Ornithologist. 

 Fifty-eight pages are utilized in treating 

 of the natural enemies of animals, in 

 pointing out the useful and the harmful 

 species and the means to be taken to 

 control those which are harmful. This is 

 followed by more detailed accounts of the 

 introduction of domestic enemies, such as 

 the cat and dog, rat and such feral ene- 

 mies as foxes, minks, weasels, skunks, 

 shrikes, bluejays, hawks and owls, snakes, 

 frogs and insects. The bulletin is illus- 

 trated with six plates and a number of 

 figures showing the comparative amounts 

 of the different food items taken by differ- 

 ent natural enemies. 



As controllers of life, natural enemies 

 have an important place in the economy 

 of nature. It is well known to naturalists 

 that in a state of nature the natural 

 enemies of any species are as essential 

 to its welfare as are food, water, air and 

 sunlight. Unthinking people are slow to 

 realize this, as they see only the apparent 

 harm done by the so-called rapacious 

 creatures, and fail to observe and reason 

 far enough to perceive the benefits that 



such creatures confer upon the species on 

 which they prey. 



Insect-eating, fish-eating and flesh-eating 

 animals are essential in the great scheme 

 of nature, as they serve to check the in- 

 crease and regulate the numbers of other 

 species, which in turn, when so regulated, 

 tend to perform a similar office for vege- 

 tation. Thus these predatory creatures 

 may be regarded among the chief con- 

 trollers of life upon this planet. Man, 

 the savage, of course must be included 

 among them, and civilized man, if guided 

 by reason and wisdom rather than greed 

 or folly, may exercise a beneficial control 

 over many of the lower animals. 



Among the menaces pointed out in the 

 methods of controlling natural enemies is 

 the introduction of foreign species which 

 tend to destroy the balance of nature, and 

 the bounty system, which, with few ex- 

 ceptions, has proved a failure. Bounty 

 laws tend to encourage the use of guns 

 in the fields at all seasons of the year 

 and they continually encourage fraud. As 

 evidence of the fraud which is sure to 

 appear Mr. Forbush quotes Dr. Jos. Kalb- 

 fus, secretary of the game commission ot 

 Pennsylvania, as saying that many men 

 are willing to commit perjury for a dol- 

 lar. One man claimed to have killed 

 102 goshawks in four days in July, when 

 this bird is only found in Pennsylvania 

 in autumn, winter or early spring. Many 

 frauds such as this have been perpetrated 

 in the state of Pennsylvania since the 

 bounty system took effect. 



In recapitulating, it may be said that 

 this bulletin shows that (1) natural 

 enemies of birds are necessary and desir- 

 able, as they tend to maintain within 

 proper bounds the numbers of the species 

 on which they prey; (2) organized at- 

 tempts to increase the numbers of birds 

 over large areas by destroying indiscrim- 

 inately all natural enemies are undesir- 

 able; (3) under certain circumstances 

 enemies which have been able to adapt 

 themselves to man and his works and 

 have become unduly numerous may re- 

 quire reduction in numbers; (4) individ- 

 uals of useful species which may become 

 particularly destructive should be elimi- 

 nated ; (5) self-interest on the part of 

 the people most concerned eventually will 

 bring about such reduction of predatory 

 animals as is needed without the stimulus 



