158 Bird - Lore 



director of the Royal Station for Agricultural Entomology in Florence and 

 a distinguished entomologist, has very decided opinions upon the relations 

 of birds and insects to agriculture. Aside from every question of sentimen- 

 tality, he considers it an open question whether wild birds are not, upon the 

 w^hole, more destructive than useful in their relation to insects, and thus to 

 the farmer and his crops. He considers that predatory and parasitic insects 

 are quite capable in most cases of controlling injurious species, while many 

 of these really useful agents are destroyed by birds*. This naturalist is 

 now engaged upon a treatise on insects, the concluding volume of which 

 will deal with the relations of insects to man. We may examine his views 

 more fully at some future time, but, since the latter work is not yet com- 

 pleted and his earlier writings are not readily accessible, we shall follow 

 for the present the compilation of Lico. 



Lico devotes a chapter to the relation of birds to agriculture in which he 

 weighs the opinions of Italians both in favor of the birds and against them, 

 taking a stand rather guardedly with the latter. In the following paragraphs 

 I shall translate freely or literally from Lico, or even paraphrase his remarks, 

 in order to present his meaning or to define his position and that of others 

 upon this important question. Quoting from a paper delivered by Comm. 

 C. Durando before the National Zoophile Society of Italy in 1899, he says: 



"In Italy, while the olive fly and the piralidi t cause annually losses of 

 several millions of francs, there is a furious hunt after birds of every kind 

 with firelocks, drag nets, bird-lime, snares, as well as mirrors, bird-calls, 

 artificial decoys, and even with birds caged and blinded for the purpose. At 

 every period of the year, without regard to the laws which prohibit it, 

 hunting is carried on. The prey is sold with impunity in the public markets 

 in the close season, and, what is worse, they do not spare the nests of 

 young birds, not even those of the poor Swallows. It is estimated that in 

 all Italy the annual hecatomb amounts to ten millions of individuals, among 

 which the Landsteiner of Wiholsburg reckons three millions Swallows. 



"As a result of this, one should not wonder at the fact that not only in 

 Italy, but also in foreign countries and especially in Germany, the alarm has 

 been sounded and has spread from one state to another so that it has been 

 turned into a kind of proverb which one hears everywhere repeated; 'The 

 birds are the best allies of the farmer; let us protect the birds.' 



"One of the most fervent of our ornithologists is Sig. C. Ohlsen. 

 Animated with a passion and a persistency worthy of better success, if not 

 a better cause, he does not limit his exertions to lectures on this subject, 



*For the reference to Professor Berlese's work and for this expression of his views I am 

 indebted in the first instance to the courtesy of Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the United 

 States Bureau of Entomology, and later to Professor Berlese himself. 



t Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) , of which we are told in another place that there 

 are twenty-eight genera in Italy, and that all of them are very injurious to agriculture, 

 especially to the apple, to hemp, and to the vine. 



