The Value of Insectivorous Birds

Abstract

WHILE I cordially agree with Dr. Collinge's protest in NATURE of July 25, p. 407, against the indiscriminate destruction of small birds, I think he overrates the extent of the mischief that has been and is being done. No doubt the owners or tenants of market-gardens and orchards are not careful to distinguish between hurtful and beneficent species, but ihere are vast tracts of country where nobody dreams of killing song-birds, though schoolboys have been, are, and, I fear, will continue to be, incorrigible nest-harriers.