212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



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 essen- 

 tial in the great scheme of nature, as they serve to check the 

 increase and regulate the numbers of other species, which in 

 turn, when so regulated, tend to perform a similar office for 

 vegetation. Thus these predatory creatures may be regarded 

 among the chief controllers 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 ani- 

 mals. In matters relating to the control of wild life, however, 

 he is only beginning to exhibit reasoning powers somewhat 

 superior to those of the ape. 



NATURAL ENEMIES REGULATE THE NUMBERS OF ANIMALS, 



All organic beings naturally produce a superabundance of 

 offspring and thus tend to increase in numbers. This is a 

 provision of nature intended to prevent the extinction of the 

 species. The rate of multiplication varies greatly in different 

 animals, but should any form increase without check it even- 

 tually would come to be so numerous that it would devour 

 its entire food supply and become extinct from starvation, or 

 it would compete with other forms which feed on similar food, 

 until all became extinct for lack of food and from diseases 



