328 
Wild Birds in Bekition to Agriculture. 
obvious cause they observe a friend on his back kicking his 
heels in the air, they take the hint and hop off. 
The Report of 1888 mentions the thousands of migrating 
birds annually killed by striking the various lighthouses ; heads 
and wings are collected and forwarded to the Economic Orni- 
thological Department.* There are public exhibitions of birds, 
each specimen labelled with habitat and food. The geographical 
distribution of species has also occupied much attention. To 
secure adequate results it is found that a great number of 
stomachs must be examined. Mention is made of the common 
crow (Corvus Americanus) ; it kills vast numbers of mice. 
The fifth Annual Report, the report of 1890, mentions the 
publication of three illustrated leaflets (bulletins) on hawks and 
owls, on the common crow, and on ci'ow-blackbirds. More than 
800 stomachs were examined for the purposes of these pub- 
lications. 
Ornithology is still characterised in America as “ this little- 
known field ! ” ** It is said, no doubt justly, that unless illus- 
trations are well executed it is better to do without them ; and, 
let us note this in England, it is found in analysing the contents 
of birds’ stomachs that a reference collection of seeds is invalu- 
able. Mention is made of a large and increasing correspondence 
— 4,000 specimens were sent in for identification. The collection 
of stomach-contents now in the department numbers 12,000 and 
it is daily increasing ; still, the department clamours for more, 
because in most cases there are few representations of the food 
of the same species of bird taken at different times of the year. 
Seed planting by birds raises questions of great novelty 
and interest to dwellers in the old country, and these questions 
in their solution will afford plenty of employment — hard nuts to 
crack — for our proposed English school of Economic Ornithology. 
All the smaller birds, according to the official report, are either 
insect eaters or seed eaters : it has been discovered that the 
seed eaters are not the seed planters : seeds which contain nou rish- 
ment are eaten, and in the process are ground and destroyed : 
seeds which are only contained in other nourishment are 
swallowed and survive. It has been discovered by actual 
observation — so the official report says — that American crows 
can take in and retain for some time and finally disgorge at will 
anything distasteful or injurious. Hence, having swallowed 
' I understand a committee of the British Association has been engaged 
for ten years in preparing a digest of observations from light-houses and light- 
vessels on the migration of British birds. 
* Yet with us the science of ornithology is said to be smothered in its own 
literature, so wide a field must now be trodden by specialists. 
