Bird Notes and News 



51 



How to make the garden a home is further 

 indicated by Mr. G. L. Searight, writing to 

 Bird Notes and News from Gloucestershire : — 



With a little encouragement it is wonderful how 

 quickly wild birds make themselves thoroughly at 

 home in even very small gardens. 



Some few years ago nesting-boxes were fixed at 

 heights varying from 8 to 15 feet in a row of pollarded 

 poplars, covered with ivy, also in a birch tree ; the 

 higher boxes are for Starlings, the lower for Tits. 

 These have been regularly occupied each spring ; 

 the StarUngs have stuck to the same box for four 

 years ; the Tits change about, possibly on account 

 of being amioyed by House-Sparrows. In addition 

 to these, Hedge-Sparrows, Robins and Thrushes have 

 successfully reared two broods each this year, and the 



number of useful birds reared would have been greater 

 if they were not molested by House-Sparrows, who 

 succeeded ui driving away the House Martins some 

 years ago. One of the greatest delights in the garden 

 is a large flower pot saucer, kept constantly full of 

 fresh water all the year round, where the birds bathe 

 and drink from dawn to dusk. 



At this time of the year (July) the garden is full 

 of young birds being fed in the most fearless manner 

 by their parents, who bring their youngsters up quite 

 close to the tea table for bread crumbs. The Tits and 

 Starhngs take their young off to country fields as 

 soon as they can fly, but they will return in the autumn 

 and remain with us till next winter. A half coconut 

 hung up will ensure constant visits of Tits. The 

 Robins, Blackbirds, Hedge-Sparrows and Thrushes 

 remain the whole year on most friendly terms. 



Economic Ornithology. 



BIEDS IN THE GARDEN. 



The great importance of the two main 

 subjects dealt with in the present number of 

 Bird Notes and News has the result inevitably 

 of crowding out much interesting matter, 

 including letters from various correspondents 

 deahng with the question of birds and fruit. 

 One writer, an officer in the Army, writes of 

 the constant kilUng of birds — all birds — in 

 cherry orchards while the fruit is ripening. 

 " I walked to one tree which had a net over it, 

 and found myself standing on four dead Song- 

 Thrushes. I did not v/ant any cherries." 

 That is one point of view. Another corres- 

 pondent asks the Society's approval in killing 

 " some thousands of birds " (species not named) 

 because they attack his fruit. He wants more 

 cherries. 



A Somersetshire fruitgrower says that netting 

 placed over gooseberry bushes resulted in the 

 leaves being all devoured by caterpillars and 

 the berries spoilt, while the bushes outside 

 were full of fine fruit. From a Midland County 

 comes a protest against the use of poisonous 

 washes, recommended in gardening journals, 

 in place of the natural insect-killer, the bird. 



Birds v. Poison-Sprays. 



" My own small garden is well filled with fruit trees 

 and bush fruits. No jjoisonous washes have ever been 

 or ever will be used on them. The birds keep them 

 clean for me. I have never found a caterpillar in my 

 gooseberries, and they bear heavy crops every year. 



" All day and every day in this dry season (June, 

 1919) the parent bircU are hunting busily the insect 

 food to satisfy the demands of their babies. Are they 



Ukely to take it from trees poisoned with arsenate 

 of lead and other horrors ? 



" But, the birds must be cultivated and encouraged ; 

 above all, looked after and fed in winter, and nesting - 

 boxes must be provided that they may nest in j'our 

 own garden. People who wi'ite about the scarcity of 

 birds, and leave it at that, camiot expect birds to 

 appear in their garden just at the moment they require 

 them. It must be made a home for them. 



" But they will take the fruit ? Of course they will 

 if it is not protected when ripe. Even so, said Pro- 

 fessor Owen, ' it is the wages of my Choii'.' " 



THE LITTLE OWL. 



Dr. W. E. Collinge (The University, St. 

 Andrews) is asking for specimens of the Little 

 Owl with a view to the examination of its food 

 by " volumetric analysis." There is no doubt 

 that some careful inquiry of the kind is needed, 

 owing to the rapid spread and increase of the 

 species of late years, and the fact that if it is as 

 mischievous as is generally supposed, its mis- 

 deeds will tell heavily against our British Owls 

 in the estimation of farmer, keeper, and the 

 public generally. Dr. Collinge believes the 

 bird is being maligned, that less than a fifth of 

 its food consists of poultry and game chicks, 

 and that it is a potent factor in the destruction 

 of the short-tailed Field Mouse. It is very 

 desirable to settle the matter — so far as the 

 complicated question of a bird's food can ever 

 be settled by laboratory analysis — and to 

 ascertain its toll, not only of game and poultry, 

 but of the useful and charming Warblers and 

 other hedgerow birds, of which it is thought to 

 destroy large numbers. 



