68 Campbell, Fruit-catino Birds. \ '5"^;' 



' ■=■ Land Oct. 



Fruit^eating Birds. 



By a. G. Campbell, Melbourne. 



(Writicii fur the Nature Study Exhibition, Geelong, Easter, 1905. 

 N on- competitive. ) 



In dealing with frugivorous birds we find a subject which apparently 

 is of nothing but negative importance to the interests of a country. 

 There is less direct bearing upon the welfare of a community than 

 is found with the insectivorous section. But this is only on the 

 surface. An axiom founded upon a general study of birds is that 

 no bird is without its uses. Nature abhors a deadhead. So, taking 

 up this proposition, we will endeavour to prove it among fruit- 

 eating birds. 



That the taste for fruit is developed with most of the birds that 

 are called pests places us at once upon artificial, or shall we call it 

 disturbed, ground. The birds never saw the civilised fruits of man 

 before his advent here, and never knew what it was to dip their 

 bills in their hidden sweetness or carry off the smaller berries, seeds 

 and all. They lived previously upon insects, upon seed, and in a 

 few instances upon native berries and tiny fruits. 



But when their native forest was taken from them, with its store 

 of provender, they, if not starved outright, or if not hardy enough 

 to take to other available native food, came to look upon the crops 

 and fruit trees planted in the clearings as legitimate spoil. This is 

 further accentuated by the fact that the season in which the various 

 kinds of fruit ripen is one when the natural supply of insect or 

 other food is, with the approaching summer, beginning to be scarce. 

 It often happens that in one district, adjacent may be to the virgin 

 forest, the early fruit ri]:)ens untouched, for the birds are away 

 attending to nests and offspring and living upon natural food, 

 but the fruit crops after the new year suffer consideral.ly. 



It is indeed a serious thing to find birds developing and increasing 

 in a taste for cultivated fruits, apart from their natural food, and 

 it is almost beyond explanation, unless it be by the same principle 

 which governs bees when they discover honey can be got without 

 working very hard. The robbing of a weaker colony utterly 

 demoralises the robbers while ruining the robbed. 



Fruit-eating birds must not be judged too harshly. More 

 observation and study are required before a proper estimate 

 can be put upon either their depredations or their service ., for 

 these do exist in every case. Birds must not be utteily con- 

 demned because they are seen at a bad point. Ask the question 

 of each one — Where are they during the remainder of the year, 

 and what are they eating then ? 



Introduced birds are without doubt a more difficult problem than 

 the native. All of them are pests in some way or other. Gold- 

 finches and Sparrows strip valuable flower and vegetable seed 

 from our gardens ; Thrushes and Blackbirds destroy the softer 

 fruits ; while Minahs and Starlings are most inveterate fruit- 



