278 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



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currants to obtain the mites (Eriophyes) that live there. In fact, 

 the only injurious act we have proved against these little birds 

 seems to be that of pecking the base of ripe pears and apples. 

 This may easily be prevented by planting a few rows of sun- 

 flowers in the plantations so that they blossom about the time 

 the fruit is ripening. Mr. F. Smith has found that by so doing 

 the tits go to the sunflowers and leave the fruit alone. 



The consensus of opinion of practical men and ornithologists 

 is so strongly in favour of the Paridae that we may safely say 

 they should receive all the protection we can give them. 



The Wagtails (Motacillidae), with which are included the 

 Pipits {Anthus), need not concern us, for they are universally 

 accepted as beneficial by virtue of being great destroyers of 

 insects, slugs, water snails, worms, etc., and help materially in 

 keeping down many noxious creatures, such as the water snail 

 (Limnceus truncatulus) that is the secondary host of the liver fluke 

 of sheep. 



Unfortunately, from this useful family we have to turn to the 

 Thrush family, or Turdidse. As far as the farmer, forester, and 

 gamekeeper go they have no cause for complaint, nor has even 

 the gardener except when his fruit is ripening. The fruit- 

 grower, however, has endless loss caused by this family of 

 birds. The Blackbird, Thrush, and Missel Thrush are the most 

 important. 



Mr. Cecil Hooper voices the general opinion when he says 

 (i, p. 78) that "the Blackbird, as far as the fruit-grower is con- 

 cerned, is the blackest of thieves." 



It is incredible how the Blackbird has increased in recent 

 years. Although hundreds have been shot in plantations, it 

 seems to make no difference. Mr. John Riley, of Putley Court, 

 near Ledbury, killed hundreds in his plantations, and he tells 

 me they are still far too numerous. Mr. C. Hooper records a 

 Bedfordshire grower having trapped last year five hundred, and 

 yet they still persist in large numbers. Mr. F. Smith (3, p. 4) 

 records that for the last seven or eight years he has trapped 

 over a thousand blackbirds and thrushes yearly. " This year 

 (1906), from the quantity left to breed," he says, " I shall have 

 to destroy at least two thousand to keep them at all within 

 bounds ; that is, on about two hundred acres of fruit." The 

 sparrow and rat clubs in East Kent include the blackbird in 

 their lists. At Elmsted 469 were brought in last year, at 



