PROTECTION OF BIRDS——COLLINGE. 353 
prove equally injurious. The problem is a most difficult one. Those 
who demand all-round uniform protection are equally as wrong as 
those who favor all-round destruction, and the State that listens to 
either side or allows such extravagant views to weigh in their delib- 
erations is amassing troubles for the immediate future. 
Only after a long and careful study can we arrive at a satisfactory 
conclusion. Experience shows that it is possible to learn with con- 
siderable precision the percentage of the different kinds of food. 
Let us take the case of the skylark. This bird requires about 6 pounds 
of food per year, “so that 10,000 birds would require about 27 tons 
of food in a year.” As we now know the percentages of food eaten 
by this species we can analyze this figure. Of the total food consumed 
in a year 35.5 per cent consists of injurious insects, 3.5 per cent of 
neutral insects, 2.5 per cent of beneficial insects, 9.5 per cent of grain, 
1 per cent of leaves, 2 per cent of earthworms, 1 per cent of slugs, 
1.5 per cent of miscellanous animal matter, and 43 per cent of the 
seeds of weeds. In other words 36.5 per cent of the food eaten is of 
benefit to the farmer, 50.5 per cent is of a neutral nature, and only 
13 per cent injurious. Thus we have a debit and credit account: On 
the former side we place the loss of 24 tons of cereals, and on the 
latter something like 30,000,000 injurious insects and 30,000 slugs. 
Such a plague of insects left to themselves would have destroyed 
many more tons of cereals, root crops, etc. Thus the farmer is un- 
doubtedly the gainer by an enormous tonnage of produce. 
The indiscriminate destruction of wild birds has led to serious 
insect plagues in many countries, so that any repressive measures 
must only be the outcome of very careful consideration founded upon 
long and accurate investigations such as the above. 
To provide against extermination, State reservations, as places of 
refuge, are necessary. Other countries have found such to be profit- 
able investments apart from protecting certain species of birds. 
The education of all who are connected with the land is another 
most important avenue for State activities if we are going to secure 
to generations yet unborn their birthright. 
The subject of bird protection is an exceedingly wide one and 
worthy of the attention of every enlightened community. “The food 
relations of birds are so complicated and have such a far-reaching 
effect upon other forms of life that the mind of man may never be 
able fully to trace and grasp them,” says Professor Forbush; but this 
must not be advanced as a reason why we should not steadily pursue 
our investigations of the subject, knowing how directly it affects 
mankind. If we do not we are jeopardizing our food supply, im- 
poverishing the land, and lagging behind in the progress of knowl- 
edge, and for such apathy and omissions nature will surely sooner 
or later demand just retribution. 
