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The Food of Some British Birds. By Robert Newstead, M.Sc, 

 A.L.S., &c. Supplement to the Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture. December, 1908. Price 4d. 



We are glad to find that the Board of Agriculture is at last 

 beginning to realize the importance of the study of Economic 

 Ornithology, for the Report they have just issued does credit 

 alike to the author and the authorities under whose auspices 

 it is published. 



Before proceeding to indicate the scope of Mr. Newstead's 

 careful and valuable work, we may say that if there is one 

 thing more than another which it serves to demonstrate, it is 

 this — that his conclusions are of local value only ; and Mr. 

 Newstead, probably more than anyone else, would be the first 

 to insist on this. But his work, we trust, will be taken as a 

 model to be followed in every county throughout these 

 islands ; then, and not till then, shall we be in a position to 

 draw reliable data from the facts collected, whereon to base 

 legislation, or to adopt measures for the control of any given 

 species in any particular area. The conclusions which Mr. 

 Newstead has drawn from his study of the food of birds in 

 the county of Chester, for example, will not apply with equal 

 truth in, say, a fruit-growing county. 



Mr. Newstead's paper contains the results only of some 

 871 post-mortem exsiminsitions of birds representing 128 species, 

 some of which are but rare visitants, such as the Hoopoe, 

 Waxwing, Bittern, and Crane ; while in the case of many 

 common species he has examined but a single stomach. 



In the first eighteen pages of this Report he gives a general 

 summary of his work, which has extended over the last twenty 

 years, concluding this section with a few brief generalizations 

 as to the relative value of our commoner British birds, in 

 relation to the farmer and gardener, and though we agree in 

 the main with his summary, we feel that in some cases his 

 condemnation of certain species is premature and based on 

 insufficient evidence. 



The Blackbird, Bullfinch, Sparrow-Hawk, and Raven he 

 brands as " doubtf ull}^ of any utility," while the Carrion Crow, 

 House-Sparrow, and Wood- Pigeon are " species which are 

 wholly destructive and useless." At any rate, of the last- 

 named it may be said that it is good to eat, and, therefore, 

 not useless. 



