6 
diminution is likely to be brought about by the trade for 
many years to come, while they are not in any case of such 
utility as to warrant their protection by law.” 
In commenting on these observations on a subsequent occasion, 
when the general question of bird protection was again being 
discussed, the present writer took the liberty of remarking— 
“ It is to be regretted that when the subject was before the 
Government of India in 1881 the distinguished ornithologists 
who were consulted did not ascertain the species of birds 
which were being destroyed in the Madras Presidency for 
the sake of their feathers, as they would then have seen that, 
so far from being dull-coloured, some of them have most 
brilliant plumage, and that most of them are signally useful 
for the destruction of insects.” 
In further elucidation of the importance of the subject it was 
also stated that— 
“In a country like this (India), where so many of the 
people depend on agriculture for subsistence, and in which 
the holdings are usually small, a failure of crops from the 
ravages of insects involves special hardship, and no pains 
should be spared to afford protection, as far as possible, from 
such losses. In the contest with destructive insects man is 
particularly helpless, and his chief allies in keeping them in 
check are birds, and in some cases mammals, as when the 
jackal eats beetles. It is no doubt very easy to say the exter¬ 
mination of a certain bird or birds in a district will in no way 
aHect the interests of the agriculturist, but the balance of 
animal and vegetable life in a cultivated country is so compli¬ 
cated an arrangement, that no one can foretell how far any 
disturbance of it will extend, or what calamity it may involve. 
There are further notable instances in agricultural districts in 
the case of both mammals and birds, in which reproduction has 
not kept pace with excessive destruction, and in which there¬ 
fore certain species have been completely exterminated. It is, 
moreover, quite an error to suppose that the birds which eat 
* For a list of such birds see Appendix. 
