PRESERVE YOUR BIRDS AND ENRICH YOUR COUNTRY.

Forest and Bird, Issue 12, 1 April 1927, Page 13

PRESERVE YOUR BIRDS AND ENRICH YOUR COUNTRY.

(Extract from lecture by Prof. Fitzsimons, Port Elizabeth Museum, S.A.)

In our struggle for food and life we have Nature’s helpers. Birds stand in the front rank as our allies, and cannibal insects and lizards come second in usefulness. We cannot stem the assaults of our enemies with poison sprays and other artificial appliances supplemented by useful carnivorous and parasitic insects. The birds alone can turn the scale in our favour. ' Man cannot exist upon this world without the active help of wild birds. The only obstacle to his complete- conquest of Mother Earth is the insect hordes which effectively bar his way. It is now an even-fight between insect and man for victory. Dwellers in cities do not. realise the intensity of this struggle for the survival of the fittest. If we are going to continue resting in fancied security, we shall, for a surety, be upon the rocks. Before the advent of man the balance of nature was quickly readjusted when it, for some reason, was upset. Insects in those days had a hard struggle to live with wild plant life only for food, and active watchful birds on all sides. On the advent of man the lands were tilled and the face of the world was covered with tender succulent crops. In the presence of such a food supply, insect life increased enormously. Now that is the point. When we increased the food supply of the insect armies did we put the same energy into correspondingly increasing the chief enemies of insects—the wild birds? No On the contrary, we did most illogical things. We made war on the birds; with gun, catapult, and trap we mowed them down. We burnt or otherwise destroyed their leafy shelters, and their breeding places. Yea, truly, we are reaping the harvest of ignorance, brutality, and cruelty sown by our ancestors. “As ye sow, that also shall ye reap.” BIRD PESTS. What about these bird pests? Yes, what about them? The bird pests could be counted on the fingers of one’s hands. Would that I could burn this into your —viz.: “It is an urgent necessity for us to take every possible means to not only safeguard our wild bird life, but also to do our utmost to increase the bird population to prey on the countless numbers of insects which breed and multiply in our cultivated lands.” Surely it is obvious that if an army doubles its numbers it becomes essential for the opposing

army to be reinforced. Then let us set about it, and double the army of birds which war incessantly on our implacable enemies the insects. CROPS, FRUIT, FORESTS. Insects breed on pasture lands and invade the crops, hence the urgent necessity to preserve the birds which frequent those lands. With the succulent food provided by the farmers, insects multiply many millions of times, and. but for the birds, farming would become impossible. Hosts of birds safeguard our orchards both directly and indirectly, and others police our forests. It is idle and a waste of time to stop to argue and criticise and pretend to examine into the question of the importance or otherwise of bird life. The bitter experience of other countries is sufficient for us. The Governments are spending money like water to bring back the vanishing bird life to save the people from the results of the inroads of insects, which bring poverty, sickness, and premature death to the human race. RESULT OF BIRD DESTRUCTION. There is much spade work and great battles to be fought by the human race against the adverse forces of Nature, which retard the spread of the human race over earth’s fair surface. Our most formidable and ruthless opponents are the insects. It is now almost an even fight for supremacy, and unless we combine and utilise our forces more effectively and efficiently we shall find it very difficult to secure a livelihood. A few more wars, with the inevitable disorganising of the forces employed against the insect hosts, will result in these enemies getting a strangle-hold upon us. Our race may recover, but many millions will perish of starvation and insect-borne diseases. The fecundity of the insect is tremendous, and a little weakening in our offensive will bring disaster, sure and certain, upon our race. The insects are fighting for possession of the earth. It is now a case of insect versus man. All other forms of life have been subdued, but the insect still holds its ground, and ever and anon gains considerable advantages over us. The present production of food is not sufficient for the needs of our race. Millions live in a condition of semi-starvation; hosts actually die of hunger. With the increase of the 'world’s population we must have a corresponding jncrease in food production. By subduing the insects and keeping them in subjection we can provide food in plenty for every human being. At present a large percentage of the world’s food supply is devoured by hungry insects. We cannot stem the assaults of our

enemies with poison sprays and other artificial appliances, supplemented by useful carnivorous and parasitic insects. Again I say it, and I challenge contradiction—the birds alone can turn the scale in our favour.

ENCOURAGE BIRDS TO BREED.

With the increase of insects owing to the ever-increasing cultivation of the soil and planting of orchards and plantations, we must see to it that the wild birds increase in proportion. This we can do by ceasing to persecute the birds, with, of course, the few exceptions which sometimes are apt to become a pest to individual farmers. We can do much more. We ought to have laws with drastic penalties on anyone killing birds or robbing their nests. To encourage birds to breed and stay around our homesteads and on our farms, we should provide them with surface water to drink and bathe in, and we can with advantage put up nesting boxes in trees, on poles, against the walls of outhouses* etc. Any sort of little box will do, with an entrance hole in the side, or tin cans, jam tins, and other little shelters of various kinds and designs to suit the different species of birds.

PROTECT THE BIRDS.

I would ask you, one and all, to register a vow here and now never to kill or persecute a bird unless you possess overwhelming proof that it is doing you more harm than good. Because one or two species happen to be a pest to you don’t allow your anger and indignation to find a vent by murdering other birds. Some people hate all hawks* for instance, because now and then one becomes a chicken thief. Kill the thief, certainly, but leave the others alone to carry on their useful work of waging war on rats and mice.

THE FEATHERED FRIENDS OF MAN.

“The service that birds perform in protecting woodland trees,” writes E. H. Forbush, State Entomologist Of Massachusetts, “is more nearly indispensable to man than any other benefit they confer on him. . . . Were the natural enemies of forest insects annihilated, every tree in our woods would be threatened with destruction, and man would be powerless to prevent the calamity.

“He might make shift to save some Orchard or shade trees; he might find means to raise some garden crops; but the protection of all the trees in all the woods would be beyond his powers. Yet this herculean task is ordinarily accomplished as a matter of course by birds and other insectivorous creatures, without trouble or expense to man.” 7.