CHAPTER XV 



Relations of birds with men — ^Persecuted species — ^Parasitic, or 

 commensal species — Domestic forms — Introduced forms and 

 the results of introduction. 



I HAVE not left myself very much space to discuss 

 the especially interesting topic of the relations to 

 our race of various birds, and this is a subject on 

 which there is much to be said, and great divergence 

 of views. While the ordinary " man in the street " 

 is far too apt to pop off a gun at a bird he does not 

 know, and hastily to order to execution birds which 

 may not be doing the damage he thinks, or may 

 offset actual damage by benefits done in other ways, 

 the advocate of the birds makes himself or herself 

 ridiculous by extravagant praises of the feathered 

 folk, talking of them as if they were a set of angels, 

 and arguing on the one hand that we could not 

 exist vwthout them, and on the other that we ought 

 to exist for their benefit. 



As a matter of fact, though on the whole hardly 

 ever dangerous, and seldom seriously destructive, 

 and often both directly and indirectly useful, birds 

 are not indispensable, for their work in insect- 

 destruction could be done by bats, batrachians and 

 reptiles, to say nothing of insect-preying insects; 



343 



