658 
Wild Birds Useful and Injurious. 
WILD BIRDS USEFUL AND INJURIOUS. 
I. Hawks, Owls, Thrushes, and Chats. 
The recent paper ' by Earl Cathcart, in the Journal, has drawn 
attention to the necessity and practical importance of a wide- 
spread knowledge of birds and their modes of life on the part of 
farmers and others interested in the cultivation of the land. The 
pleasure derived from observing birds and becoming familiar with 
their plumage, their notes, and above all, their habits, is never- 
ending ; and if children were encouraged to take an intelligent 
interest in birds and other forms of wild life, many of them would, 
in after years, find the monotony of their outdoor work 
immensely relieved by sights and sounds, meaningless to and 
unheeded by the vast majority of people, but very pleasant to 
those who can appreciate their significance. IMoreover, the quick- 
ness of observation, so much developed by the study of nature, 
cannot fail to be of great service to its possessors. But the argu- 
ment in favour of acquiring ornithological knowledge which, I 
am afraid, has the greatest weight with most agriculturists, is 
the intimate relation between birds, and pounds, shillings, and 
pence. This is only natural, and it is perhaps too much to expect 
everyone to care for birds for their own sake, naturalists being 
to a great extent born and not made, though early training has 
undoubtedly a very considerable influence in fostering a love of 
nature and her manifold productions. 
Birds affect both sides of the farmer’s balance-sheet to an 
almost incalculable extent. Unfortunately, the means by which 
they reduce the profits of cultivation are only too apparent, 
whilst the good services rendered by them, both on the farm and 
in the garden, are in many cases only discernible by those who 
have studied their ways very thoroughly, and who have besides a 
fair knowledge of insect pests, and their boundless power for evil. 
A description of the ravages of these small but most powerful 
enemies, and some estimates of the damage they do, will be found 
in Miss Ormerod’s excellent work on Injunous Insects, to which 
the reader is referred for information on all points connected with 
their life history, together with the best methods for preventing 
their attacks. Suffice it here to say that the damage caused by 
one species alone may be reasonably estimated at a sum so large 
that it conveys no definite meaning to ordinary mortals. Though 
many causes, some of them unknown, influence the prevalence or 
' “ Wild Birds in Relation to Agriculture.” By Earl Cathcart (Journal 
R. A. S. B., vol. iii., part ii., 3rd series, 1892, pp. 326-38). 
