46 



vain for rational explanations. Why, for instance, do we find 

 the Jackdaw protected by the Hungarian Decree, and in some 

 of the German Federal States and in Switzerland, when it is not 

 recommended as worthy of protection by the Convention and 

 when the German Imperial Law of 1888 actually convicts it of 

 being noxious ? Again, why should this same German Imperial 

 Law brand the Crossbill as noxious, when the bird is said to be 

 worthy of special protection by the Paris Convention ? And 

 why, when the signatories to that Paris Convention refused 

 to place the Bullfinch in their Schedule of useful birds, did 

 Hungary extend protection to it by her Decree of 1901 ? Or 

 why did the Hungarian Decree protect the Red-\\ing, when 

 Switzerland, by her law of 1904, particularly excluded this bird 

 from the list of protected species ? We can only attribute these 

 facts either to a great variation in the birds' habits in different 

 peaces or to the lack of a uniform scientific basis to the legis- 

 lation. Probably the latter is the origin of most of the apparent 

 differences in the estimate of the economic value of so many 

 species. Even in cases where European legislation displays 

 practical unanimity it would be rash to assume that throughout 

 the Continent the economic value of the species has been care- 

 fully studied by experts in each locality, and that the legislation 

 simply follows a verdict uniformly favourable or the reverse. 

 The treatment of the Blackcap Avill serve as an illustration. 

 Taking the more important European enactments, we find that 

 in Switzerland " toutes les especes de fauvettes " are included 

 in the protection given to insectivorous birds, and all the 

 Warblers are protected in Belgium. They are omitted from the 

 Schedule of noxious birds appended to the German Imperial Law 

 of 1888, and therefore by implication are to be protected as 

 useful in Germany. The Hungarian Circular specifically directed 

 their protection, and the Schedule of useful species appended to 

 the Paris Convention includes " fauvettes de toutes sortes." 

 In many districts in our country the Blackcap has had special 

 favours extended to it ; in some places this bird has been given 

 a special close time, and in others its eggs are also protected. Yet 

 in the face of all this, there is a strong body of opinion among 

 those who in this country have studied economic ornithology 

 in condemnation of the Blackcap on account of the damage done 

 by it to raspberries and currants and other fruit.* It is one of 

 the few species which Mr. Theobald considers clearly proved 

 guilty of doing more harm than good."]" Now it may be, and 



* See F, Smith, op. cit., and Charles F. Archibald, op. cit. 



f See article on Economic Ornithology in " Science Progress," 1907, p. 276. 



This is not, however, the opinion of Mr. O. V. Aplin ; see " Ornithology 



in relation to Agriculture and Horticultiu'e," i^. 150. 



