on the protection of bird life.



233



and add to our flocks and herds by protecting our birds. I also

propose to cite authorities to show that the loss from the destruction

of birds in a reckless way entails indirect loss of immense returns

that would be garnered if birds were in normal numbers.


In the United States of America it was estimated by the

Government experts at Washington that the ravages of insects and

rodents, which would have been kept in check by birds in normal

numbers, caused an annual loss of £200,000,000 — a colossal sum.


The list of losses is given in detail with the birds that

formerly kept the pests in check. In one year in Indiana and

Ohio insects destroyed 2,577,000 acres of wheat, due to an irruption

of insects following upon the almost total obliteration of their

natural bird enemies. The result not only was a shortage in the

wheat production of over 40,000,000 bushels, hut an increase in

the price of flour.


In Pennsylvania an Act was passed giving a bounty on every

Owl or Hawk shot. This was in 1885. After a few years the

Hawks and Owls were almost exterminated, bounty being paid on

180,000. What was then the result? In a few years rats and

mice so increased that in one irruption or plague the farmers of

Pennsylvania lost £962,000 worth of damage to their grain. Needless

to say, the Legislature repealed this Act.


Without desiring to unjustly intrude the subject of bulk¬

handling of wheat I venture to say that the farmers of Australia

have suffered in this year more from the destruction of bird life,

which has allowed plagues to breed, than from any old-fashioned

system of handling wheat.


In Australia Hawks are shot at sight where other birds are

spared, being regarded as not only a useless bird but as vermin.

I have seen at Jindabyne for the past ten years great numbers of

small Hawks on the ground, especially in one or two paddocks.

I have puzzled myself as to what attracted them there, until I found

that they were mainly killing and feeding on field mice. I have

shot two or three Hawks which were attacking the poultry, and

I did so with great reluctance because I am sure that for one

chicken taken there were hundreds of mice destroyed. It is,

perhaps, but little known that mice are fairly plentiful in most



