IRature IRotes : 
Zhc Sdborne Society’s ^IDaoasine 
No. 95. 
NOVEMBER, 1897. 
VoL. VIII. 
THE FARMER’S FRIENDS. 
HE Board of Agriculture have lately issued a series of 
leaflets dealing with those birds which are undoubtedly 
useful to the agriculturist. They do not pretend that 
the birds they have dealt with are the only useful ones, 
for probably every bird that flies does some good to man, but 
they have selected a few in which the good far outweighs the 
bad, and which notwithstanding are unfortunately even now 
marked out for slaughter by gamekeepers and farmers. 
Sentimental appeals for mercy to people who think birds 
injure them financially must ever be futile, but once convince 
keeper and agriculturist that certain birds are really of service 
to them, and there will be little need of Bird Protection Acts for 
those particular species. The real difficulty is to bring convic- 
tion to their minds. They resent any casual interference, and it 
is often impossible to give at the time ocular proof in favour of 
any particular bird, and equally impossible to controvert on 
the spot condemnatory statements as to alleged facts, however 
improbable those statements may be. 
I once asked a farmer why he shot squirrels, expecting as 
an answer that they sucked the eggs of the game birds. To 
my astonishment he said they killed rabbits and sucked their 
blood. I pointed out to him how contrary such things were 
to the natural habits of the squirrel, and asked if he had ever 
caught one in the act. No he had not, but some one else had. 
I took the trouble to find out this some one else, only to dis- 
cover that he had never actually witnessed such an occurrence, 
but he had been told by some one that somebody else had once 
seen a squirrel attack a rabbit. It is on evidence as untrust- 
worthy as this, that many birds have had given to them an evil 
character which is the converse of the truth. 
