Birds as Crop Protectors 



tect all birds during the breeding season, 

 a period throughout which the young of 

 even such a harmful species as the HOUSE 

 SPARROW is insectivorous. It must surely 

 be the height of folly to kill birds at 

 the very time when they are doing good, 

 though it is arguable that it should be legal 

 to kill a bird which is caught in the act of 

 doing harm. No insect eater should be the 

 object of a crusade merely because for a week 

 or two he takes toll of the fruit. It is not 

 just, and, more than that, it is bad policy. 

 The attitude of him who would kill a bird for 

 taking sixpenny worth of fruit after saving 

 pounds' worth of produce from the insects 

 is obviously ridiculous (Sheffield Daily Tele- 

 graph, 3.vii.i8). 



The schoolboy who translated the old 

 adage Medio tutissimus ibis by In the midst of 

 them was the Ibis, jolly safe! was certainly 

 not scholarly, but his translation would be 

 apt were it not for the avariciousness of the 

 collector of rare British birds ; to my mind 

 our Wild Birds Protection Acts carry out its 

 sound principle both from the bird-lover's 



