Co2 Otto Herman : 



rously for the maintenance of the Hungarian Central Office 

 for Ornithology whose task, apart from ornithophaenology, 

 is chiefly to cultivate economic ornithology, and it was 

 certainly one of the greatest merits of the former Minister 

 of Agriculture, M. Ignace de Daranyi, who lias been again 

 re-appointed, that he devoted great attention to economic 

 ornithology and bird-protection. 



The main purpose was to spread ornithological knowledge 

 in order to interest the public in the subject. 



This was accomplished by Stephen de Cherners large work, 

 written by direction of the Minister of Agriculture, and 

 entitled, " The Birds of Hungary, with particular reference 

 to their importance for Agriculture." 



The writer of the present paper is also the author of a 

 small popular book on the benefit and harmfulness of 

 birds. This latter work served as a basis for the regulation 

 of bird-protection in Hungary, and contains a list of all ihi> 

 popular synonyms of the names of protected birds. 



Thanks to this, no one in Hungary can be in doubt as to 

 whether a bird is protected or not, which also greatly facili- 

 tates the administration of the laws dealing with the subject, 

 fn pursuance of the same purpose an examination of the 

 food of birds was made. The contents to be examined were 

 got from bird stuffers and others who formerly threw away 

 the contents of the stomach. The examination was made 

 with great care and extended over a long series of years, 

 but it was thus unnecessary to kill the birds by hecatombs 

 merely to obtain the contents of the stomach. 



The proceedings adopted elsewhere, which consist in calcu- 

 lating the average quantity in an arithmetical way, do not 

 lead to certain results. If we take into account the quick- 

 ness <>f digestion, important results may be obtained, but 

 they are chiefly of a physiological character, and do not give 

 us a clear idea of the benefit or harmfulness of a bird in 

 relation to agriculture or sylviculture. 



The principles tobe followed are determined by the nature 

 of the subject itself ; the food of birds has to be examined 

 in the course of the seasons, and in organical connection with 

 the periodical changes in agriculture and sylviculture. 



This, of course, requires a long time, .and generations will 



