Bird Notes and News 



115 



Economic Ornithology. 



WOODPECKERS AND FORESTRY. 



Bird students have long contended, in the 

 face of a good deal of opposition and prejudice 

 on the part of the less intelligent of the 

 woodman class, that Woodpeckers are valu- 

 able economic allies of the forester. In the 

 Journal of the Board of Agriculture for 

 November, 1915, Mr. Walter Collinge demon- 

 strates this fairly conclusively. It has, he 

 observes, often been said that these birds 

 damage sound timber by pecking holes in 

 or girdling them, and that they also wound 

 saplings and damage telegraph posts. In 

 view of the re-afforesting of large tracts of 

 land, the subject is being investigated, and 

 so far Mr. Collinge writes a first report. 



With regard to reported injury to sound 

 trees, Mr. Collinge states that he has not met 

 with a single case where sound timber has 

 been attacked, and he has been unable to 

 hear of a single authenticated case from the 

 many foresters consulted or written to during 

 the investigations. In the case of nests, 

 trees in which nesting holes were found were 

 in every instance already injured or decaying. 

 In the case of food, " a careful investigation, 

 extending over two years, shows that of 

 upwards of a hundred trees attacked by 

 these birds not a single one was previously 

 sound." 



Concerning the actual food of the three 

 British Woodpeckers, Mr. Collinge reports 

 that the stomach contents of 91 specimens 

 had been examined. Fully 75 per cent, of 

 the food was found to consist of injurious 

 insects, the list including the Osier and Pine 

 Weevils ; Pine Beetles, various species of 

 Bark-Beetles, and Longicorns ; Rhinoceros 

 and Shot-borer Beetles ; and larvae of Pine- 



shoot Tortrix, Birch Clear-wing Moth, and 

 Wood-leopard Moth. Of the larv* of the 

 largest timber-destroying beetles the remains 

 of 57 examples of Rhagium (Longicorn) were 

 found in one bird ; but the total number of 

 insect remains showed that a single bird had 

 consumed upwards of 1300 beetles, another 

 1,100, while from 300 to 800 were common. 

 Of the remaining 25 per cent, of food, 20 

 per cent, consisted of ants, the rest of other 

 insects. 



Mr. Collinge concludes : — 



" From observations made in the labora- 

 tory and field, extending over two years, 

 there is no doubt that Woodpeckers are 

 distinctly beneficial to forestry, and merit all 

 the protection that can be afforded them. 

 From an examination of the stomach contents 

 alone, it would be impossible to come to any 

 other conclusion. If, in addition, it is borne 

 in mind that the birds destroy large numbers 

 of timber-destroying insects during the 

 nesting season, their value will be better 

 realised." 



BIRDS AND WIREWORMS. 

 In a long report on wire-worms issued by 

 the United States Department of Agriculture 

 a list is given of 90 species of birds, all of 

 which have been proved by the Entomological 

 Bureau to be large devourers of these crop- 

 destroying pests. No fewer than fifteen 

 varieties of sparrows are included in the list, 

 headed by our own English House-Sparrow, 

 for which hitherto scarcely anyone has had 

 a good word. After allusions to various 

 methods of combating wire-worms, the report 

 declares that when all is said and done about 

 such remedies and preventives, birds are 

 probably the most important factor in 

 keeping wire-worms in check. Certain small 

 lizards and toads come second. — Estate 

 Magazine. 



