CHAPTER VIII 

 MIGRATORY BIRDS 



INSECTIVOROUS AND HARMLESS 



NIGHTJAR or GOATSUCKER. Feeding entirely upon insects 

 night-flying moths, beetles, gnats, etc. this bird is strictly pro- 

 tected. Sometimes, however, it is captured in glade-nets, stretched 

 in narrow glades or ridings in woods from tree to tree, ostensibly 

 for catching hawks, but harmless night-flying birds often fall victims 

 in glade-nets to the " setters' " rapacity. 



SWIFT. This bird has lofty ideas in nesting and flight, and 

 scours the open spaces in towns and their environs in quest of 

 insects incessantly from dawn to dusk, freeing the air of countless 

 pests. 



SWALLOWS. These live solely upon insects, taking flies of all 

 kinds and many species of gnats, small moths and beetles on 

 the wing, and beetles and other insects upon the ground. The 

 swarms of winged aphides that migrate from ligneous to her- 

 baceous plants, and from one plant to another in early summer 

 in woods to late September, afford a fine harvest for swallows, 

 and the crane flies that fly over the marshes, fields, pastures and 

 lawns towards the end of the summer, are eagerly seized by the 

 swallows flying low. Harming no one, swallows should be strictly 

 protected internationally, their slaughter in the South of Europe 

 and everywhere interdicted, even as food, and above all for pur- 

 poses of fashion. Probably every swallow worn as millinery 

 represents a decrease of useful vegetation equal to the weight of 

 the person wearing it, in consequence of damage inflicted by pests 

 as result of its destruction, and it equally applies to the food 

 furnished to the killer by the swallow, this being out of all pro- 

 portion to the food that would be available were it allowed to 

 live and render incalculable service to humanity. Birds, eggs 

 and free-breeding should be a national and international concern 

 as regards protection, no interference with these being tolerated 

 in any part of the world, not even by a sparrow, much less by a 

 person for ladies' headgear. 



GRASSHOPPER WARBLER and SEDGE WARBLER. These birds 

 render untold service to foresters, osier-growers and farmers by 

 river and stream-sides. Anglers, however, complain of small 

 bird protection resulting in a relative scarcity of mayflies, etc., 

 so that both the fish and sport are embarrassed. 



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