284 NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



ferred by the consumption of injurious seeds and noxious insects. 

 They entail also direct harmful consequences by their pugnacious 

 and self-assertive nature in driving off useful insectivorous birds from 

 the neighbourhood of their haunts. Yet it is by no means clearly 

 proved that an utter and complete extermination of the sparrow- 

 nuisance would be a benefit, for when man upsets the balance of 

 nature, he very often has to pay for it in some form or other. 



The sparrow certainly requires no Act of Parliament to protect 

 him, and the plea of sentimentalists and humanitarians that he should 

 be allowed to increase and multiply unchecked, will certainly never 

 be listened to by those country folk who are best able to form a 

 judgment in the matter. 



There can be no doubt that, during the last half-century, the 

 woodpigeon or ringdove [Cohnuba paUuuhus) has increased to an 

 enormous extent. The causes of this increase are, doubtless, the 

 killing off of the falcons and hawks, which are the natural enemies 

 of the race, the increase of woods and plantations, especially 

 those of fir, and the abundance of winter food in turnips and other 

 green crops. It is quite certain, too, that in the autumn the ranks of 

 our local birds are greatly increased by immigrants from the Continent. 

 In the autumn, woodpigeons congregate and attack the ripening 

 corn, particularly in those spots where it is storm-laid, devouring 

 great quantities, and crushing and trampling the heads to near the 

 ground, so that in a wet season much becomes hopelessly sprouted. 

 In winter they commit serious ravages in the turnip crops by eating 

 the leaves, thus exposing the bulb to frost. They are also very 

 partial to the young clover plant. The ringdove, however, has 

 redeeming points, its plaintive coo, rbo, coo, coo is a pleasant sound 

 at early morning in spring woodlands, and in the winter it is a real 

 sporting bird, and excellent eating. 



The injury done by rooks has often been much exaggerated by 

 farmers and others. If we put aside those periods of the year when 

 it levies contributions on the newly-sown corn, especially when badly 

 covered, the time when the corn is ripening, injury done to stacks and 

 swede turnips in severe weather — we have pretty well enumerated all 

 the charges brought against him. All the rest of the year he is rid- 

 ding the pastures of injurious grubs, such as the larvae of the cock- 

 chafer (Melolantha), and of the cranefly {Tipula). In recent years, 

 rooks, in those districts where they are too many, or short of food in a 

 drought, have been accused of developing egg-stealing propensities, 

 and liarrying the nests of game birds and wild fowl, and killing the 

 young, and we are afraid he is not altogether guiltless in this respect. 



The starling, considered from an agricultural point, is the greatest 

 possible friend both of farmer and gardener, its food during the 

 whole of the year consisting of grubs, small molluscs, worms, and 

 insects, and only very occasionally fruit and berries. In the autumn 

 immense flights of migrating starlings come to us from the Continent ; 



