164 



[Proc. B.N.F.C., 



be an Ornithologist, but he must also have a knowledge of 

 Entomology and Botany. 



Three methods are employed by the economic Ornithologist 

 in studying a bird's food : — 



1. The bird may be caged in order that its likes and dis- 



likes, as well as the quantity of food it will consume in 

 a given time, may be ascertained. 



2. The bird may be studied in nature. 



3. The contents of a bird's stomach may be examined. 

 The first is too narrow and artificial. The second may be 



entirely misleading, for it is not always easy to determine by 

 watching it what a bird really eats ; the third yields the only 

 definite and satisfactory results, and is the one that should be 

 employed by the State to ascertain its friends and its foes. It will 

 be found without question, I think, that the " friends " vastly 

 outnumber the " foes " judging by results obtained by another, 

 and, on this question, more enlightened, country. 



The examination of the stomach contents of the dead bird 

 has been well called " The Court of Final Appeal." Let me now 

 give you an outline of the meagre information we have in these 

 Islands as to the result of this Court of Final Appeal. But first, 

 let me point out that in this respect, as in so many others, our 

 Belfast Naturalist, whom we are all so proud to own — the late 

 William Thompson — was a pioneer. 



The only careful, detailed and prolonged investigation into 

 the food of three common British birds that I know of, was that 

 carried out by Sir John Gilmour in the County of Fife in 1894, 

 into the food of the Wood-Pigeon, the Rook, and the Starling. 

 The report fills 92 pages and the investigation was for 12 months 

 from March, 1894; the object was to ascertain the particular 

 articles of diet consumed in the different seasons of the year by 

 Wood-Pigeons, Rooks and Starlings, so that all doubts which 

 existed as to whether the birds named are friends or enemies of 

 the farmer, might be, to a certain extent, cleared up. A fairly large 



