Bird Notes and News 



43 



insects (or 30 including slugs, snails, millipedes, 

 and worms) ; and for the Starling, 20 per cent, 

 cereals, 2 of roots, 15 of cultivated fruits, 

 and 26 per cent, of injurious insects (or 42 

 including worms, slugs, millipedes, and snails). 

 The food of Starling nestlings showed 89 per 

 cent, of injurious insects. 



The Chaffinch, on the other hand, is stated 

 to have decreased of late years, and both this 

 bird and the Yellow Bimting the writer regards 

 as generally speaking beneficial. Of the Song 

 Thrush, he says : " Fruitgrowers generally 

 wiU be well advised and acting in their own 

 interests if they leave this bird alone," while 

 the Fieldfare " is a most valuable bird to the 

 farmer and merits every protection during its 

 stay in this country." 



Of the Tits Dr. Collinge is a hearty champion, 



" Were it not for the Tits and similar birds, the 

 cultivation of fruit would long ago have proved 

 unprofitable, owing to the innumerable insect pests 

 that attack the majority of fruit trees, in spite of 

 spraying and other artificial means of protection . . . 

 As a destroyer of injurious insects the Great Tit must 

 be reckoned as one of the most valuable we have . . . 

 Whilst a hundred Tits in an orchard may commit an 

 appreciable amount of damage to the fruit, it is 

 extremely doubtful if there would have been any fruit 

 to damage had it not been for their good services 

 earlier in the season." 



And of the Blue Tit he writes similarly : — 



" All who foster or aid in its destruction are doing 

 a serious injury both to themselves and fruit-growers 

 in general." 



Dealing with these birds in Country Life, 

 Dr. Collinge tells a story of the kind familiar 

 to those who have investigated complaints of 

 the diet of birds. A correspondent wrote that 

 he had shot dozens of Tits as " dreadful 

 enemies " to fruits and peas, adding "it is 

 astonishing how quickly they will destroy a 

 crop of the latter." Three of the " dreadful 

 enemies " were, by request, shot and for- 

 warded, and their stomachs were found packed 

 with caterpillars and green-fly, with no trace 

 whatever of vegetable matter. 



Dr. Collinge summarises his verdict as 

 follows : — 



" 1. The Jackdaw, Yellow Bunting, Great Tit, Blue 

 Tit, Song Thrush, and Fieldfare are distinctly beneficial. 



"2. The Great Tit, Blue Tit, and Fieldfare are 

 beneficial to such an extent that their protection is 

 advisable. 



" 3. In spite of the injuries it commits, it would 

 be unwise to recommend any reprossive measures for 

 tha Chaffinch. 



" 4. The Starling has been allowed unduly to 

 increase. At the present time it is far too numerous 

 and the injuries it commits are far greater than the 

 benefits it confers. Temporary repressive measures 

 would no doubt help to restore a more normal popula- 

 tion of this bird, with considerable benefit to both 

 the farmer and the fruitgrower." 



FINCHES AND FRUIT-TREE BUDS. 



A long correspondence has taken place in 

 the New Statesman, dealing in the first instance 

 with the Bullfinch and its destruction by fruit- 

 growers, but extending over a good deal more 

 groimd, and contributed to by, among others, 

 Mr. H. J. Massingham, Mr. E. Pease, the 

 Secretary of the R.S.P.B., Sir Sydney Olivier 

 (late of the Board of Agriculture), and Mrs. 

 Hamilton Leigh. With regard to the damage 

 done by Finches, the main point raised is 

 that abuse of the bird commonly arises when 

 the buds and blossoms strew the ground, 

 and little is said as to the actual result of this 

 disbudding upon the crop. On this point 

 Mr. Frank Buckton writes from Battle : — 



" There are two orchards, close upon two acres, in 

 the gardens of ' The Banks,' an estate near Roberta - 

 bridge. In spring, 1917, there was grand blossom on 

 the apple and pear trees. Quantities of Chaffinches 

 came ; the ground was white with the blossom, 

 flowers and buds pecked off by them. In the autumn 

 a very good crop. No spraying or cleaning done to 

 either of the orchards. 



" In spring, 1918, grand blossom again. No Finches; 

 only a fair number of Tits about. No flowers or buds 

 pecked off. In the autumn an extremely poor crop, 

 about i lb. to every cwt. of 1917. 



" What damage was caused by the birds' dis- 

 budding 7 If fruit-trees flower they generally set a 

 hundred to a thousand more flowers than could ever 

 develop into fruit under the very best of conditions. 

 The trees are even helped if lightened of tiieir over- 

 production of flowers. This applies to growth-buds 

 too, as they overcrowd the trees and bushes with 

 branches which only give additional work in thinning 

 out at pruning-time. Should a fruit-tree flower 

 extremely poorly, showing only a few flowers, the 

 chances are that scarcely any of them will bo touched 

 by the searching birds. 



" Even calculating the worst result which it is 

 supposed might be inflicted by birds during late summer 

 and early spring, it can only be a speculation, as the 

 cause of the fall of developed flowers or young fruit 

 might be due to many other causes affecting develop- 

 ment before the actual ripening of the fruit was 

 completed. For oxamplc, during the summer of 

 1918 fruit-trees set moderately well in many southern 

 countries, but the tiny fruits dropped at the time 

 they ought to have swelled. 



" Does not the same apply to gooseberry bushes 

 disbudded by birds ? Almost every ])rofessional 

 gardener has somehow got the idea that the Finches 

 destroy them. But who has seen actual damage 

 resulting thereby to the JumI crop 't " 



