Utility and Economy of Birds 



ance rendered by birds to forestry and agri- 

 culture, to say nothing of the dietetic value 

 of Game-birds and Wildfowl. That the farmers 

 and their " expert advisers " were, however, 

 slow to regard the birds as the protectors of 

 their crops, the following notes will show. 



One of the features of the War was the 

 breaking-up of thousands of acres of pasture 

 land. This innovation revealed the presence 

 of a corresponding amount of insect pests 

 such as wire- worms; yet, oblivious of the fact 

 that insect plagues can be dealt with effec- 

 tually only by birds, their indiscriminate 

 destruction was recommended by the "expert 

 advisers " of the Board of Agriculture. In 

 view of the fact that insectivorous birds may 

 also eat grain, these wiseacres issued a ban 

 against all birds, regardless of the acknow- 

 ledged fact that, though birds may take a 

 proportion of fruit or grain at harvest time, 

 they more than justify their existence by the 

 quantity of injurious insects they consume at 

 other seasons of the year. Any thoughtful 

 mind must be impressed by the wisdom of 

 our Wild Birds Protection Acts, which pro- 



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