630 Otto Herman : 



THF FOOD OF BIRDS. 1 



By Otto Herman. 



If we trace the commencement of the international 

 "investigation of the food of birds, we find that this, question 

 was first debated by the economical section of the third Inter- 

 national Ornithological Congress held in Paris in 1900, when 

 it was decided to request the governments of the different 

 countries to cause an investigation into the food of birds to 

 be made. The International Agricultural Congress, sitting 

 at the same time, fell in with this decision, and it was arranged 

 that the results should be submitted to the fourth Inter- 

 national Ornithological Congress to be held in London. 



The decision, however, remained practically a dead letter, 

 for no such request was made to the varions governments, 

 and the Hungarian Central Office of Ornithology alone carried 

 on the investigations recommended by the Congress without 

 awaiting any request to do so. 



Only by an examination of their food are we enabled to 

 decide the question as to whether birds are useful or other- 

 wise, and without positive knowledge as to what birds eat at 

 different seasons, their classification as useful or harmful, is 

 a mere conjecture. 



What must we understand by the usefulness or harmfulness 

 of a bird? Does " harmful " mean with respect to nature or 

 to man '? 



In regard to nature, the bird living as an organism accord- 

 ing to the laws of nature, and being a necessary link in the 

 chain of organisms, can be neither useful or harmful. 



It is, then, only its behaviour with respect to man, or to 

 human interests, which determines its usefulness or harmful- 

 ness. 



If w r e enquire, which are those fields of human activity 

 where the usefulness or harmfulness of a bird manifests 

 itself, we shall find that, apart from sentiment, only agri- 

 culture, including horticulture, and sylviculture and the 

 breeding of cattle as well as of other live-stock such as game, 

 fish, bees, etc., can be taken into consideration. 



1 Abstract from a paper published in " Aquila", 1904, vol, XT., on " Reporl 

 on the investigation of the food of Birds since 1900." 



