518 Short Communications i — 



only occurred in a small length of the tip of the mandibles, 

 and but little, or not at all, hindered the bird from feeding. 

 It died in 1832 or 1833, but the death of it was imputed to 

 some one's having given it, in incautious kindness, meat that 

 had been salted, instead of meat free of salt. — J. D. 



Hie Blackbird renders important Service to Man in the De- 

 struction of the Grubs of the Cockchafer. — Sir, In the month 

 of August last, I was struck with the rather unusually large 

 assemblage of blackbirds which frequented my garden ; eight 

 or ten were frequently to be seen together ; and one morning 

 I counted thirteen at the same time hopping about and chat- 

 tering on the grass plot before the house. Their visits were 

 usually paid about eight o'clock in the morning, and continued 

 to arrest my attention for perhaps ten days or a fortnight. 

 The birds directed their operations more especially to parti- 

 cular spots on the grass plot, which they stocked up with their 

 bills, till the turf, which changed colour, and was supposed 

 to be dying, became almost bare in patches, and was quite 

 disfigured by the refuse roots of grass, &c, which were left 

 littered on the surface. Indeed, such was the rough and un- 

 sightly appearance which the glass plot presented in conse- 

 quence, that hints were even thrown out that the blackbirds 

 ought to be destroyed ; for they had been repeatedly seen in 

 the very act of disfiguring the turf, and the whole mischief 

 was of course, from first to last, attributed to them. Suspect- 

 ing what might be the object of the bird's research, I turned 

 up a piece of tuff with the spade; and found it almost swarm- 

 ing with tlie cockchafer grubs of various sizes; and this cir- 

 cumstance confirmed my suspicion that it was for the purpose 

 «f feeding upon these larvae that the blackbirds had made 

 such havoc of the grass plot. They performed in short, 

 in this case, precisely the same service by destroying the 

 cockchafer grub, that the rooks are so well known to do. 

 (p.. 142.) The turf, I should add, soon regained its wonted 

 verdure, the injured patches being scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the rest of the grass plot. Here then we have another 

 instance of the " utility of preserving birds on farms and in 

 orchards and gardens." (p. 143.) The above fact also con- 

 firms me in the opinion that birds which subsist for the most 

 part on vegetable food do not confine themselves to that diet, 

 but prefer to mix along with it some animal food likewise. 

 There was plenty of fruit in the garden, gooseberries and 

 currants, which are so much to their taste, when the blackbirds 

 chose to be at the pains of stocking up the turf in order to 

 devour the cockchafer grubs. And yet I have heard the black- 

 birds called " a most pernicious race." They do, I admit, eat 



