Recent Ornithological Publications. 353 
contains a translation by Mr. Henry L. B. Ibbetson of a pam¬ 
phlet on f Destructive Insects, and the immense utility of Birds/ 
by Professor von Tschudi. Of course the sympathies of every 
ornithologist must be with both the author and his translator; 
but this publication is not quite free from the fault, so common 
in all others we have seen on the same subject, of assuming that 
because one set of opinions is right, it follows that the contrary 
set must be wrong. There is a good deal more to be said on 
the other side of the question than many people will allow. We 
hope it will not be supposed for an instant that we are defend¬ 
ing the wholesale destruction of birds in any way; but if man 
disturbs the balance of nature in a good many ways, as he 
assuredly does, it is clear that he is not a neutral power in the 
great “ struggle for life.” Hence one side often gets an undue 
advantage, and requires a corresponding check to restore the 
equilibrium. The following extract may serve to explain why 
some species of birds, which are certainly not particularly perse¬ 
cuted, often become scarce in localities where they were formerly 
abundant, and it may also help to account for the often-noticed 
scarcity of small birds on the Continent of Europe:— 
“ Generally speaking, the progressive cultivation of the earth 
is not very favourable to animals living in freedom.But 
it has been especially hostile to birds. The hospitable thickets 
diminish yearly: man forces onward the limits of his domain; 
he masters the as yet uncultivated soil, and draws from it rich 
harvests. Large tracts of woodland are cleared to supply the 
wants of an increasing population and the heavy demands of 
industry. The large trees formerly left standing in the midst 
of a field, in which numberless small animals found a refuge, 
are made away with, or replaced sometimes by the small fruit- 
tree. Long rows of hedges, the hiding-place of a whole host of 
birds, meet with the like fate; and these, too, were of other 
use, for they attracted quantities of caterpillars, which fed on 
their green leaves, and thus spared the orchards. All the little 
nooks so useful to birds, both as hatching-places and hunting- 
grounds, disappear one by one. In woods, the mistake of cutting 
down, right and left, old trees full of small holes has been, unfor¬ 
tunately, understood too late, and thereby numbers of the best 
vol. v. 2 b 
