The Trials of Ploughs at Waru'ich, 
325 
complied witli all instructions given to them. Our thanks are 
also due to Mr. Percy Crutchley, the Senior Steward of Imple- 
ments, for the admirable arrangements made ; to Mr. Hortin and 
Mr. J. Palmer, on whose farms the trials were conducted, and 
to INIr. Hortin, jun., who efficiently filled the post of Assistant 
Steward ; and, I might add, to the weather. Such assistance 
enabled the trials to be carried out without a hitch anywhere, 
and at the conclusion of them it was felt on all hands that, while 
no time had been wasted, nothing had been left undone. 
F. S. Courtney. 
WILD BIRDS IN RELATION TO 
AGRICULTURE. 
Economic ornithology, or the science of birds considered from an 
agricultural point of view, is a subject which for a long time has 
been in steep in my mind. I chanced to read a letter from 
Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P., of which, in relation to the Scotch 
plague of mice, this pathetic passage was the text : — 
A few days ago a gamekeeper in the Stewartry went to examine a trap 
which he had set for hawks. He found one hawk ‘ in it, and, strange to say, 
its mate had keen feeding it. No fewer than portions of twenty-two mice 
were discovered lying around it, including a number of voles, or field mice. 
It is alleged that the gamekeeper killed the hawk, although such proof was 
given of its being the farmers’ friend. 
Moved by this admirable letter, and by the excellent example 
thus set me, I also addressed the Editor of The Times, and by his 
favour the following letter was published on May 16 last : — 
Economic Ornithology, or the study of the inter-relation of birds and 
agriculture, and an investigation of the foods, habits, and migration of birds 
in relation to both insects and plants, is an untrodden and promising field 
that lies open for investigation by the English agricultural scientist. 
We are in this important matter far behind our cousins in the United 
States of America ; their Agricultural Department in 1886-6 established a 
“ Division of Ornithology,” which, I understand, has since obtained and pub- 
lished, in the direction in question, very valuable and very practical informa- 
tion. To cite the American official report — “ By publicity it was hoped to 
correct the ignorance concerning injurious and beneficial eflects of the 
common birds of the country, and to prevent the wholesale destruction of 
useful species.” 
To anyone who observes and thinks it is most painful to read day after 
‘ Probably a kestrel {Falco tirmunculus), a beautiful and useful bird, never 
hurtful, 
