126 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



on the habits of animals produces, is shown by the name of the European 

 representative of this family, which being seen to i\y around the herds 

 of goats at dusk in pursuit of insects, and being found to have very wide 

 mouths with which it ought to be able to suck goats, was wisely named 

 the goat sucker, and this name sticks to it even in this age of enlighten- 

 ment and careful observation. 



We have now to mention an extensive group of small birds, of which 

 the thrushes, warblers, wrens, etc., are insect eaters for the most part, 

 onl}' occasionall}^ varying their food by eating fruits and berries. Most 

 of theni are sweet singers, and their little pilferings in the garden 

 should be considered as nothing in comparison with the good they do by 

 killing insects. They may be recognised as a group by their generally 

 slender and rather weak bills, and there are about tifty species of them 

 found in this State. Most of them frequent groves, and many are con- 

 fined, as far as known, to quite limited ranges of country, being quite 

 rare in the agricultural districts where trees are scarce. 



Another group of about tift}^ s])ecies of small birds of California, sub- 

 sist chieflj' on seeds, grains, and berries, and some of them are considered 

 great pests by farmers and gardeners in the fruit season, or where garden 

 plants are cultivated for their seeds. The common redheaded linnet of 

 California is an example everywhere known, and the group is distinguish- 

 able by having the bill more or less smaller and strong compared with 

 that of the insectivorous group. Yet even these birds destroy great num- 

 bers of insects, especially in the breeding season, when they feed their 

 young entirely on insects until nearly ready to fly. Indeed, many kinds 

 subsist so generally on insects that it is scared}^ possible to say to which 

 of these groups they belong, and their bills generally show a correspond- 

 ing slenderness. On this account the naturalists have abandoned the 

 division of the small singing birds in this way, and I only use the divis- 

 ions as a convenient mode of showing their influence on agriculture. 



The omnivorous land birds of California include about twenty species 

 of the families of the orioles, meadow lark, blackbirds, crows, jays, and 

 magpies. These are among the commonest about the fiirms. and some 

 of them are the most persecuted of any of our birds. But it has been 

 ascertained by careful observation of their food and habits, that when 

 not in extraordinarj' numbers, even the crows and blackbirds do more 

 good than harm. For one grain of corn that thc}^ eat they destroy a 

 hundred grubs and caterpillars, of the ver}^ kind most destructive to 

 crops, and b}^ frightening them away from the fields and garden crops 

 by use of paper scarecrows, they become benefactors at other seasons. 

 Parmers often wonder why the tields nearest the house, and in the best 

 cultivated districts, should be the most subject to attacks of insects. It 

 is easily explained by the fact of the destruction of the birds, and especi- 

 ally of those that go in flocks, and can thus in one hour clean a field of 

 insects more efl'ectually than a farmer can in a month. The two first 

 above mentioned rarely if ever eat grain, and their bills are weak and 

 slender, compared to others. 



The pigeon family, of which we have only three wild species, never 

 eat animal food at all. The domestication of our large and handsome 

 wild pigeon, a species not found east of the Rocky Mountains, Avould bo 

 an interesting experiment to those who can obtain eggs and set them 

 under the tame pigeon. 



The gentle and harmless dove seems in a fair way of extermination in 

 some districts by the vile habit of cockney sportsmen of shooting them 

 in pairs as they set on the nest, too confidingly built near roadsides and 



