17 
WILD BIRDS, USEFUL AND INJURIOUS. 
Some years ago the late Earl Cathcart, in the Journal of this 
Society,* * directed the attention of agriculturists to the absence 
of exact information respecting the habits of the various Wild 
Birds useful or injurious to farmers, and urged the study of 
economic ornithology, as to which a serious void in English 
agricultural education had been found to exist. This article 
was followed by two communications which I prepared for the 
Society in 1892 and 1894.® The present paper is written to 
complete the series. ^ 
A brief reference to the former papers may not be out of 
place. Since they were written many notes on the food 
of birds have been published, and it is a relief to me, as the 
writer of the two articles alluded to, to find that, so far as I am 
able to judge, this further information and my own subsequent 
observations do not necessitate any material alteration in the 
views already expressed. The Wild Birds Protection Act has 
been improved at intervals by amendments, enabling County 
Councils to protect eggs as well as the birds themselves, and to 
prohibit the taking and killing of particular birds throughout the 
year ; any bird or egg taken in defiance of the Act may be 
forfeited, and at last, in 1904, it was enacted that “ Every 
person who, on any pole, tree, or cairn of stones or earth, shall 
affix, place, or set any spring, trap, gin, or other similar 
instrument calculated to cause bodily injury to any wild bird 
coming in contact therewith, and every person who shall 
knowingly permit or suffer or cause any such trap to be so 
affixed, placed or set, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be 
liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding forty 
shillings, and for a second or subsequent offence to a penalty 
not exceeding five pounds.” The pole-trap therefore is, happily, 
a thing of the past ; perhaps it should rather be said that the use 
’ Journal, R.A.S.E., 1892, page 32.5. 
* Ibid., 1892, page 668, and 1894, page 60. 
’ The following is a list of the birds mentioned in the previous papers : — 
Part I., 1892. — Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Buzzard, Merlin, Barn Owl, 
Tawny Owl, Long-eared Owl, Short-eared Owl, Blackbird, Thrush, Missel 
Thrush, Fieldfare, Redwing, Flycatcher, Robin, Hedge-sparrow, Wheatear, 
Whinchat, and Stonechat. Part 11., 1894. — Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, 
Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Wood Wren, Willow Wren, Chilfchaff, Wren, Blue 
Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Marsh Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Pied Wagtail, White 
Wagtail, Yellow Wagtail, Grrey Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, 
Yellowhammer, Bunting, Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, 
Hawfinch, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, and Linnet. 
C 
