The British Naturalist 65 



and entered in the churchwardens' accounts for their de- 

 struction. So strong, indeed, and universal seems to be the 

 prejudice against them, that it is next to impossible to per- 

 suade some people that, so far from being injurious, these 

 birds are exceedingly useful.* It is with great pleasure, 



* The chaffinch is generally considered a most pernicious bird in gar- 

 dens, and is treated accordingly. We once knew a market-gardener who 

 used to say that " one chaffinch was well worth a charge of powder and 

 shot." And it must be confessed, that it does commit considerable depre- 

 dations among seed-beds, especially those sown with the seed of the cru- 

 ciform or Tetradynamia class of plants (radishes, turnips, cabbages, &c.), 

 destroying the seed just as it is sprouting and coming up. In some cases, 

 perhaps, even this operation may be beneficial, and may serve as a salu- 

 tary thinning or pruning of the beds ; seeds being very commonly sown too 

 thick, and few owners having the courage to thin enough, either in the 

 case of seed-beds, fruit, or any other crop. Be this as it may, however, 

 the bird at all events destroys an enormous quantity of insects ; and in 

 this way makes amends for any injury it may do to our gardens in other 

 respects. This opinion, we ai'e happy to find corroborated on the authority 

 of Mr. Main (see Vol. IV. p. 417.), who speaks of these birds as frequent- 

 ing gardens, " where," says he, " they are useful, being, during summer, 

 entirely insectivorous." 



In the early part of last summer our attention was attracted by a chaf- 

 finch, which, as we sat in our room, we observed to pay repeated visits to 

 a broom bush (<S'partium ^coparium) immediately in front of our windows. 

 The bird remamed a considerable time in the bush at each visit, and 

 appeared exceedingly busy about something, hopping from spray to spray, 

 searching and rummaging among the branches, and evidently using its bill. 

 We suspected that the object of plunder was the young soft seed of the broom, 

 which at the time was much in the same state as peas are in, when fit to 

 gather. Upon examination, however, we found every pod whole and 

 untouched ; but the bush was smothered with aphides ; and these, we 

 ascertained, (not the soft seeds, as we had supposed,) were what attracted 

 the chaffinch. Whether the bird devoured the aphides itself while in the 

 bush, or (as we rather suspect) carried them off for the purpose of feeding 

 a young brood, we cannot say ; but an immense number of aphides must 

 have been destroyed during its repeated visits. 



When any mischief is done in the garden, the orchard, the plantation, or 

 on the farm, we are very apt too hastily to lay the blame on such animals 

 as may happen, in pursuance of their usual habits, to be occupied in or 

 near the spot where the mischief takes place. Frogs and toads have be- 

 fore now been accused of eating the strawberries, because they are often 

 met with among the strawberry-beds. We have been told of a gentleman 

 who charged the rooks with having stripped his oak trees of their leaves. 

 That the oaks were nearly bare, was beyond dispute ; and he had himself 

 seen the rooks settling upon them by thousands, and pecking away right 

 and left with their bills. War was therefore declared by the owner against 

 the rooks, and good store of ammunition laid in for the occasion. But, 

 fortunately for the "black population," before hostilities actually com- 

 menced, the gentleman was convinced by some one who stepped in, and 

 knew more of natural history than he did himself, that the rooks were not 

 in fault ; quite the contrary ; they had only flocked to the trees for the 

 sake of devouring the myriads of cockchafers, and of the larvae of moths, 

 which were the real depredators. Every country gentleman, every gar- 

 dener, every farmer, every person, in short, who owns or is occupieil about 

 Vol. V. — No. 23. f 



