The Value of Insectivorous Birds

Abstract

WITH reference to Sir Herbert Maxwell's comments on my article in NATURE of July 25, I think he has overlooked one of the causes I mentioned in connection with the present scarcity of our insectivorous birds, viz. the severity of the winter of 1916–17 and, to a smaller extent, of that of 1917–18. I should like, therefore, to direct his attention to a recent and valuable report on the subject by Messrs. Jourdain and Witherby (British Birds, 1918, vol. xi., pp. 226–71; vol. xii., pp. 26–35), wherein they point out, as the result of a very careful and prolonged inquiry, the enormous mortality that has taken place, in some cases to the extent of 80–90 per cent in certain counties.