274 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



In woods and forests they are equally harmful, for there they 

 feed upon the buds of beech, larch, hawthorn, etc. 



There is no better judge of the economic value of birds than 

 Mr. F. Smith, and he shot no less than 285 bullfinches in his 

 fruit plantations in the winter of 1905, and yet they still come 

 from the woods. At Wye the sparrow club received 147 in the 

 winter of 1905-6, and no less than 200 in the past winter, yet 

 we still have some doing damage to the fruit. 



The Chaffinch {Fringilla ccelebs, Linn.) is not generally 

 thought to be harmful. In an article on the bird in The Board 

 of Agriculture Journal the writer says " many fruit-growers and 

 all who are careful observers regard the chaffinch as one 

 of their best friends," and concludes by saying : " In France 

 and Germany the chaffinch is regarded as a useful friend to 

 cultivators, especially by fruit-growers." We are not aware of 

 this in France, Belgium, or Holland. Ritsema Bos (10, p. 64) 

 says : " It does a great deal of damage in cornfields by picking the 

 seeds out of the soil after they have been sown, but does not 

 take the grain from the ear ; it also eats young seedlings : 

 but valuable services more than counterbalance the harm 

 it does." Mr. F. Smith tells us it is a great nuisance as a 

 disbudder of fruit, especially after a frost, and they squeeze 

 the blossoms to extract honey from them later on. Gardeners 

 generally complain of its depredations, especially in regard 

 to attacking sprouting seed of Brassicae. The forester also 

 complains of the chaffinch feeding on coniferous seeds and 

 biting off the young cotyledons and leaves of beech and 

 conifers. Archibald (5, p. 78) refers to the attack on Scotch 

 firs, etc., and says " at times it does considerable damage to 

 young turnips, radishes, and similar crops." 



In return the Chaffinch takes a few caterpillars, mainly for 

 its young, flies, aphides, including the woolly aphis, and also 

 seeds and beechmast, the seeds including those of many weeds, 

 especially Knot-grass {Polygonum). There seems so much 

 difference of opinion in regard to this finch that it is probably 

 best left in its present condition, but any undue increase must 

 of necessity be checked by shooting the birds after their 

 nestlings are mature. 



The Greenfinch (Ligurinus c/iloris, Linn.) where abundant 

 is worse than the Chaffinch. It is a great destroyer of fruit 

 blossom, it picks hops to pieces, it eats the seeds of ripe 



