FKUIT AND GRAIN EATING BIRDS. 181 



CHAPTER XLI. 



FRUIT AND GRAIN EATING BIRDS. 



As Part I. of the Handbook contains a list of the insec- 

 tivorous birds of Victoria, it has been thought desirable to 

 include in Part II. a list of those which feed principally 

 on fruit, grain, and other vegetable products. 



To those birds considered specially destructive to 

 orchards, farms, vineyards, and gardens, an asterisk is 

 attached, and I am again indebted to Mr. A. J. Campbell, 

 F.L.S., for his kindness in going through the lists with 

 me, and also for some corrections to the same. 



In placing the " crows " in the above category, I feel 

 that I am doing these somewhat nasty birds an injustice, 

 as although they are rapacious in the extreme, and are 

 very destructive to disabled sheep, also to poultry, &c., 

 they devour enormous quantities of locusts and grass- 

 hoppers, subsisting often upon little else than the above 

 destructive insects and crickets. 



It would be hard indeed to draw any hard and fast line 

 between many of the insectivorous and non-insectivorous 

 birds, and as with ourselves in many cases necessity 

 amongst them knows no laws. 



Amongst many of our most practical growers there 

 exists a great difference of opinion as to which birds 

 should be destroyed and which should be protected ; but 

 having studied the matter fairly well, and with the aid of 

 dissections of the stomachs of many of these birds, have 

 convinced myself as to what is probably the correct view 

 of the case. I can safely assert that the list here given 

 will be found trustworthy, and in this connexion I may add 

 that I am entirely in favour of the introduction of insec- 

 tivorous birds of other countries; but, before such is 



