2 BIRDS AS CROP PROTECTORS 



IT is the considered opinion of the greatest 

 modern ornithologists that insectivorous 

 birds are man's best friends, since they 

 have been proved to be protectors of his 

 crops. But, with the crying need for the 

 maximum production of food, an outcry 

 against birds in general was only to be ex- 

 pected. Would that the detractors of the 

 birds' characters had been silenced for ever ! 

 But though this pious wish is far from being 

 fulfilled, it is satisfactory to be able to record 

 that, as the War continued, the inimical 

 attitude of the agriculturist towards birds 

 showed signs of abatement. Economic ornith- 

 ology has not yet been sufficiently studied 

 in Great Britain, but the laborious work of 

 such investigators as Messrs. W. E. Collinge, 

 C. F. Archibald, J. Gilmour, F. V. Theobald, 

 H. S. Leigh, R. T. Gunther, and Miss Laura 

 Florence all goes to prove the valuable assist- 



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