BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



75 



Woodpigeon.— A decided pest on the whole, 

 feeding on all green crops. 



Brown-headed (or Black-headed) Gull.— 

 Entirely useful. 



Finally, Mr. Slater summed up by saying that 

 certain species, including all the slender-billed 

 birds, kestrel, owls, lapwing, and black-headed 

 gull, ought to be encouraged and protected by 

 every possible means. Certain others are naturally 

 beneficial, but liable to over-multiply, as the rook, 

 blackbird, and perhaps starling. Certain others 

 require a moderate amount of scaring at certain 

 times of the year, such as the bullfinch, great and 

 blue tits, skylark, chaffinch, greenfinch and haw- 

 finch, jay and magpie. One or two are, from a 

 farmer's point of view, almost an unmitigated 

 nuisance, such as the house-sparrow, and, a long 

 way after him, the woodpigeon and jackdaw. 

 These appear to be the only exceptions to the 

 general law that birds are most valuable friends of 

 farmer and gardener, and it is quite conceivable, 

 indeed it seems certain, that agriculture, which a 

 good many people find an uphill job at present, 

 might be absolutely impossible without the help of 

 our feathered friends. 



The discussion which followed was especially 

 interesting as showing the variety of opinion with 

 regard to many birds, and practical unanimity 

 concerning others. While there appeared to be 

 general agreement that birds as a race were dis- 

 tinctly more beneficial than harmful, the house 

 sparrow found no friends, the woodpigeon and 

 starling were considered to be unduly increasing, 

 and divergent were the views held as to the 

 rook. 



Mr. Henman said that a great deal of the light 

 land of the country could not be farmed profitably 

 unless the rooks were always at hand to keep down 

 wire-worms. They also took the click beetles of 

 which wireworms were the larvse. The owl was a 

 public benefactor. Some few years ago, while shoot- 

 ing in a covert, a gentleman brought two brown owls 

 as his contribution to the bag. He told him that he 

 ought to be fined £$ a head by the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, and if he had his way would 

 fine him ^10 right off. If the jay would keep 

 down the woodpigeon in any degree it eminently 

 required preserving. 



Mr. Muntz (Birmingham) said he had heard 

 grievous tales of the damage done by rooks, but 

 had found by actual practical experience that, 

 though they might consume a certain amount of 

 green food, they consumed a great deal that was 



not green, particularly wireworms. He had found 

 the rook's crop full of wireworms. 



Mr. St. John Ackers (Gloucester) cordially 

 agreed that any man who shot an owl should be 

 fined more than £$ ; and considered the sparrow- 

 hawk also one of the most useful birds left in this 

 country, as now that the peregrine was practically 

 extinct it was the only bird that could, or did, kill 

 wood-pigeons on the wing. He thought it far 

 more useful than the kestrel, which though it des- 

 troyed quantities of mice, also destroyed a good 

 many young birds. He did not think the whole 

 blame for the decrease of martins could be put 

 upon the sparrow, for though the martins had de- 

 creased, the swallows, with which the sparrow did 

 not meddle, had decreased still more. With 

 regard to the green plover, could not the Farmers' 

 Club rmke a strong protest against the number of 

 eggs taken of this bird, one of the most useful on 

 the farm ? The eggs were constantly gathered, 

 and high prices offered to those working on the 

 land to break the law and send them to market. 



Mr. Slater, in replying, spoke of the value of 

 a windmill with a rattle attached, to scare birds 

 from fruit, and concluded with a rook anecdote. 

 The tenant of a large farm said to him one 

 morning, pointing to a bare patch in the field, 

 " Look at the beastly rooks, they are getting all 

 that corn." " I beg your pardon," was the reply, 

 " the rooks are not getting the corn, they are 

 getting the gentlemen that are getting the corn." 

 Said the farmer : " I do not believe they do the 

 least bit of good." To defend the rooks Mr. 

 Slater shot one, on its way from corn to rookery, 

 and bade the farmer look under its tongue. He 

 said, " It is nearly all wire-worms. I will never 

 touch another rook as long- as I live." 



"The farmers of America are now thoroughly 

 aroused to their annually increasing losses from 

 the ravages of insects, and, having seen the failure 

 of many costly attempts to check the insect pests 

 by artificial devices, are now willing to aid Nature 

 in her efforts to preserve the balance which their 

 ignorant, misguided efforts have disturbed. They 

 are no longer seeking the destruction of their best 

 friends, the hawks, owls, and crows, and are as 

 vigorously prosecuting the vagrant pot-hunter and 

 the small boy with a Flobert rifle as they are the 

 pilferers of orchard and melon patch or the pipe- 

 smokmg tramp in their hay-mows. ... In 

 view of the extent of the evil caused, he who 

 unnecessarily kills a bird is worthy of a more 

 severe punishment than the traitor who sells to a 

 foreign government the plans of our coast de- 

 fence." — Prof. G. L. Cannon (Annual Report for 

 1904 of the Board of Horticulture, Colorado.) 



