The Emu. 
13 
Feathered Friends or Foes ? 
Bv " Orchardist." 
It is, alas, sad to relate that the name of a Hawk cannot be 
spoken of in the presence of the average farmer without bringing 
forth some exclamation about a gun, for it is usual to associate 
the bird with a diminishing brood of poultry; and the Magpie, 
the Cockatoo, and the Crow are only thought of in connection 
with scanty harvests and empty wine vats. Little is it reasoned 
tjiat by depriving nature of some of her agents the fitness of 
things is in danger of being deranged, thereby allowing some 
lower form of life to be ascendant ; and when one season the 
locust, or the caterpillar, or the cockchafer devastates the fields, 
the farmer cries out and asks what he has done to deserve the 
visitation. Yet if questioned whether he would prefer to see a 
percentage of the small members of the fowl-yard disappear over 
the horizon in the claws of a Hawk, or patches on the outskirts 
of the crop destroyed by Cockatoos and Magpies — whether he 
would prefer these things to the possibility of having the whole 
standing crop eaten over in a night by the caterpillar, or all the 
estate denuded of vegetation by the locust, no food even 
remaining for the unfortunate horses and cattle, then there is no 
doubt what the answer would be. A beautiful balance has been 
made in the world of nature, and is preserved as long as the 
factors are in their right proportions. When this balance is 
destroyed, as often happens by man's wilful acts as much as by 
the march of civilization, then the offender suffers. Birds 
can be divided according to their manner of feeding — the 
carnivorous, or those which catch and kill small animals, 
reptiles, fishes, and birds for the purpose of food ; then the 
insectivorous, or feeders on insects ; and thirdly those which feed 
on seeds of grasses. Among the latter can also be put the fruit- 
eating birds (those birds which take as their natural food the 
native fruits of their forest home). Then, apart from, or 
at least out of these, can be found individuals which are 
omnivorous, to which a fixed diet is also a mixed one, and these 
are the birds against which man is wroth when he sees them 
leave their native feeding grounds for the cultivated fields. 
It cannot be denied that devastators of vegetation, such as the 
locust, the caterpillar, and the cockchafer, have increased since 
the country was opened up, or at least their ravages have been 
brought more under notice on account of the attacks on the 
farmers' crops when native vegetation is wanting. Or it may be 
that the broad acres, being much more open and loose of texture 
through cultivation, are better adapted for the reception and 
nursing of the egg of such an insect as the grasshopper, or 
indirectly, by supplying sufficient food, in the shape of tender 
herbage, to the hordes of young insects after hatching, enable 
them to pass through their stages quickly, and, becoming 
