ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY 277 



Bechmann (11), they were considered very harmful by pecking 

 holes in trees, and 2d. per head was offered in Germany for 

 their destruction. But in the same year Bechstein is said to have 

 considered them useful, and by degrees foresters began to look 

 upon them as beneficial, and so on for years opinions have been 

 for and against them. In 1881 so great was the damage done 

 by Woodpeckers to telegraph poles in Germany that instruc- 

 tions were sent that all holes in the poles had to be filled with 

 wood plugs and cement. 



That they do harm by pecking into trees, by destroying 

 seeds, and by girdling trees, we have undoubted proof; but, on 

 the other hand, it is acknowledged that they do much good by 

 destroying large numbers of injurious insects which man has 

 difficulty in doing. Fisher (8) sums up by saying : " The result 

 of investigations into the utility of woodpeckers tends to show 

 that these birds, by their activity in the destruction of insects, 

 play a most useful part in nature, and should therefore be 

 protected by foresters." 



Few birds have more friends than the family of Tits (Paridse). 

 On the farm and in the forest they do no harm at all. In the 

 orchard and garden the Blue Tit {Pants cceruleus) and the Great 

 Tit (P. major) do some slight damage. The former attacks ripe 

 apples and pears, pecking near the strig and so spoiling them 

 for market ; the Great Tit does the same, and takes a few nuts. 

 Recently the Blue Tit has been reported as attacking the buds 

 of the Monarch Plum. This is probably to get at the mites 

 (Eriophyes pram) which hibernate in the buds. In spite of 

 these few errors in their ways, all seem agreed that the Tits 

 do much good, for they hunt summer and winter for insects. 

 The mussel scale, codling moth, woolly aphis, etc., are their 

 especial favourites, and the good they do in this way is incal- 

 culable. According to Mr. F. Smith, it is the Great Tit, or 

 Ox-eye, that takes the plum buds in Kent; but in Worcester- 

 shire Mr. G. Hooper states it is the Blue Tit. 



The Cole Tit is also recorded as doing some damage by 

 attacking the buds of the black-currants, and eats the embryo 

 bunches of fruit. Is it wise to take this indictment against 

 the tits without further observations as a purely destructive 

 act ? Careful observers have shown that the bunches of 

 unopened apple and pear blossom that the tits peck contain 

 insect larvae, and it may be that they do so in plums and 



