Birds. 7729 



Destruction of Small Birds by Farmers, Gardeners and others. 



" Quem Deus vult perdere primus dementit." 



[It is with great pleasure we see this matter at length obtaining attention from 

 the enlightened government of France. The insane and suicidal policy of destruction 

 is still rampant in England, and the loss of our gooseberries and turnips is the most 

 striking result it has produced. Perhaps no pest, plague, murrain, blight or natural 

 disease ever produced half the loss that is occasioned by the use of what is called 

 poisoned wheat. It is the bounden duty of the readers of the 'Zoologist' to 

 possess themselves of the facts of the case, and to use their powers of persuasion on 

 farmers and gardeners engaged in this horrible task of extermination. The paper 

 which follows is reprinted from the ' Times' newspaper of the 21st of August, and 

 will explain itself without any commentary of mme.— Edward Neivman.'] 



M. Marshal, ex-Deputy of La Meurthe, the Agricultural Society 

 of Toulon, the Acclimatization Society of Nancy, and M. P. Schoeffer, 

 of Robertsau (Haut-Rhin), have petitioned the French Corps Legis- 

 latif, requesting that steps may be taken for the preservation of those 

 birds that destroy insects detrimental to Agriculture. 



"These four petitions (says the 'Moniteur') deserve the highest 

 attention from the Senate. 



" They are not inspired (says the Report), as might be supposed at 

 a first glance, by a Platonic sentimentality in favour of a class of 

 living creatures doomed to a destruction which does not legitimatize 

 for man the supreme law of his own preservation. However honour- 

 able and justifiable such a sentiment might be in the opinion of 

 a sound philosophy, that is not the sentiment which inspires the peti- 

 tioners. Tf practical and sensible men ask from you a more eflicient 

 protection for birds than is actually allowed by the law, they do not 

 do so out of love for the birds ; it is solely in the interests of Agricul- 

 ture, very seriously endangered, that they affirm that men ought not 

 to be allowed to continue to destroy the only auxiliaries which can 

 eflfectually stop the propagation of insects, the bane of all culti- 

 vation. 



" These petitions give rise to many questions of fact and right, 

 which we will rapidly examine. As regards the first, in default of all 

 personal competency, we have consulted, in so far as it was in our 

 power and the time we could devote to it, the highest authorities in 

 Natural History and Agriculture. It is, therefore, in their name, so to 

 say, that we submit to you certain facts for affirming which we had 

 VOL. XIX. ^ K 



