1 91 8.] Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 523 



increased food and thus stimulate the hatching out of 

 countless swarms. 



Owing to these circumstances the protection and preser- 

 vation of insect-eating birds^ and of those birds which 

 destroy small vermin, is a matter of urgent necessity. 

 If the country is to have a sufficiency of food-crops, those 

 crops must not merely be planted and tended ; they must 

 be guarded as far as possible from the perpetual menace of 

 ravage and devastation by insects. Hand-labour is wholly 

 inadequate to the task, even if it were abundantly to 

 be had. 



We tiierefore strongly urge that^ in the interests of 

 national food-supplies, this matter be taken up promptly 

 by Agricultural bodies, by Gardening and Allotment asso- 

 ciationSj and by elementary and secondary schools, with a 

 view to checking the destruction of useful birds and their 

 nests and eggs, and the preservation of insect- eating species, 

 both resident and migratory. 



Difference of opinion exists as to the economic status of 

 a few species ; but all who have studied economic orni- 

 thology and entomology are agreed (1) that the great 

 majority of wild birds are beneficial to man ; (2) that the 

 insect-eating and vermin-eating species in particular are 

 invaluable to him in field and gardens ; (3) that children 

 should not be permitted to take part in the destruction of 

 birds and eggs even of species deemed injurious, since useful 

 ones inevitably suffer also. 



Bedford. 



G. L. CouRTHoPE, Major, M.P. 



Arthur Dendt, F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University 



of London. 

 r. W. Gamble, D.Sc, F.R.S. , Professor of Zoology, University 



of Birmingham. 

 J. Stanlei Gardiner, F.R.S,, F.L.S., Professor of Zoology, 



University of Cambridge. 

 S. F. Harmer, F.R.S., Keeper of Zoology, British Museum 



(Natural History). 



