34 president's address. 



would become of the forest and field — the pastures of man and 

 beast — were there no birds ? The land would in time become a 

 wilderness. In endeavouring to combat the attacks or increase 

 of insect pests there is no "insecticide" so cheap or so effective 

 as the original and natural one — birds." 



We may recall the old picture of desolation presented by the 

 Hebrew prophet Joel. " That which the palmer worm hath 

 left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left 

 hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm 

 hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." But wheresoever the 

 grasshoppers and the caterpillars be there will the insectivorous 

 birds be gathered together. Recently in Victoria there was 

 an interruption on one of the telegraph lines. The officers sent 

 to discover the cause found the upper wire brought down into 

 contact with the lower by the weight, the papers say, of 

 thousands of crows. There was a grasshopper plague in the 

 district, and the crows, usually only seen in pairs, had assembled 

 from miles around, had caroused on the pest, and were reposing 

 on the upper wires, which their weight, assisted by that of the 

 grasshoppers, brought into contact with the lower. And, 

 strange to say, in this case the attacking allies of man were from 

 the tribe of the much-abused crow. 



An army of insectivorous birds works to keep our orchards 

 clean, and among the fruit-growers this is so well recognised that 

 the birds are looked upon as friends of all except by the cat, the 

 schoolboy — and the collector. The Bustards do their best with 

 the grasshopper, devouring them until the birds are so heavy they 

 can be knocked over with a stick. And white men will do it. 

 The Herons and Egrets and Ibis " police the irrigation channels," 

 seeking out the "yabbie" crayfish, which have done so much 

 damage by drilling holes through the retaining banks at Mildura 

 and elsewhere. These birds and others destroy the molluscs on 

 the wet flats which serve as hosts to the liver-fluke so deadly to 

 the sheep. But instances might be multiplied indefinitely. 



Colonel Ryan and Mr. Campbell have in successive addresses 

 to the Ornithologists' Union shown what measures have been 



