294 Recent Literature. \j% 



Economic Relations of Birds to Agriculture. — In this address ' Prof. 

 Beal gives a general review of the subject in which he very candidly 

 presents the facts in the case as now known. These he summarizes as 

 follows : " (i) Birds are not by the nature of their food habits, as a rule 

 wholly beneficial; nor, on the contrary, entirely harmful. They eat 

 insects because they are hungry, and not because they wish to destroy a 

 pest; and consequently devour good insects with the bad. (2) That not 

 all of the good done by birds is accomplished by the destruction of 

 insects. Many species perform an almost incalculable service by de- 

 stroying noxious weed seeds. . . . (5) That in view of the abnormal abund- 

 ance of noxious insects and the accompanying decrease in our native 

 birds it is for the present desirable that the numbers of the latter be 

 largely increased. . . . (7) That it is not desirable to import foreign species 

 of birds to this country. Such experiments, wherever they have been 

 tried, have almost invariably resulted in disaster and loss to the interests 

 of agriculture." 



Bearing on the same general subject is Dr. Judd's paper on ' Birds as 

 Weed Destroyers,' 2 in which is discussed at some length the services 

 birds render through the destruction of the seeds of troublesome weeds. 

 The species most active as weed destroyers are of course the Finches and 

 Sparrows, of which there are some twenty species, and the various 

 Larks, Blackbirds, Doves and Quails. Several of these are figured, as 

 well as some of the weeds they help to hold in check. " No less than 

 fifty different birds act as weed destroyers, and the noxious plants which 

 they help to eradicate number more than three score species." Dr. 

 Judd's paper is a summary of carefully made observations covering a 

 considerable period, and he is thus able to affirm as a fact what seems to 

 be more or less evident to even the superfical observer. 



Dr. Palmer's paper on the dangers attending the introduction of for- 

 eign animals and birds 3 gives most timely advise on a subject that can- 

 not be too seriously weighed in advance of action which, once taken, 

 cannot be retrieved, as many communities have learned at sad cost. 

 Several pages devoted to the general subject are followed by a condensed 



1 Economic Relations of Birds and their Food. By Prof. F. E. L. Beal, 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Reprinted from the Proceed- 

 ings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting of the New Jersey State Horticul- 

 tural Society, Jan. 4 and 5, 1S99. Svo, pp. 27. 



- Birds as Weed Destroyers. By Sylvester D. Judd, Ph.D., Assistant in 

 Biological Survey. Year-book of U. S. Department of Agriculture for 189S, 

 pp. 221-232, pi. xiv, and text cuts. 



:i The Danger of Introducing Noxious Animals and Birds. By T. S. 

 Palmer, Assistant Chief of Biological Survey. Yearbook of U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1S9S, pp. 87-110, pi. viii, and text cuts. 



