Fobi-unry 0, 187S. ) 



JOUKNAL OF nORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



121 



that I shall follow it up more closely iu the coming season. 

 A late house of Barbarossa and Gros Colman, grown nntl 

 treated in this way, wiU be little inferior to a house of Hani- 

 barghs. I have little hesitation in saying that they would be 



better than the latter at the time they are requu-ed, which 

 would be after New Year's-day. I also feel convinced that 

 there are vai-ieties of Barbarossa, and one of them more free iu 

 fruiting than the other. — A. Hendeeson (in The Gardener). 



THE "AMERICAN BLIGHT" BIRD. 



AnoDT this little mischievous bii'd, probably the more lite- 

 rally I adhere to truth the more extraordinary will be found 

 the particulars I shall communicate. I will commence about 

 it by using the plural instead of the singular. They seem to 

 have no fear. Their familiarity is extraordinary. Probably 

 one reason may be they never hear the noise of powder and 

 shot in my garden. Their little manceuvres at any time would 

 cheat the lawyers here. From watching them occasionally, 

 I have discovered that they have a very great aversion to 

 our New Zealand hawk — will hide themselves in my bushes 

 directly they can see his shadow iu the air with their (luick, 

 penetrating, sharp, silver little eyes. They tliiuk my garden 



bushes are then' freehold ; they make themselves so happy— 

 iu the shape of domestic happiness I mean ; for, turn my head 

 which way I may, nest after nest is to be seen in the bushes 

 on each side of my garden walks at their breeding time. There 

 does not seem to bo much wilduess in their natui-e ; and I 

 have no doubt the two hundred live bu-ds shipped in the 

 "Charlotte (Jladstone " in May last for England have arrived 

 safe and iu good health, for I can assure you they are not very 

 particular as to diet. They will not require much taming on 

 their arrival. 



About their- variety of food I shall say something presently. 

 I hope your readers will bear with me, and read patiently what 



ZoBterops lateralis. 



I have to state about their destructiveness in a garden, noted 

 from luy own personal observation. 



First of all I send you a drawing — pretty correct to nature, 

 I fancy, for an amateur bird-fancier like myself — and likewise 

 a dead skin all ready for " setting-up," if you are aciiuainted 

 with a taxidermist ; and lastly a tiny little nest. You will see 

 the nest is of a somewhat semi-hemispherical form, resembling 

 a little basket, with no lining in the interior. This curious 

 habitation, you v/ill see, is oonstructed chiefly of long hair and 

 fine roots. It is impossible to watch the progress of the con- 

 struction, and listen to their warbling as well, without admir- 

 ing the perseverance with which they bring together the mate- 

 rials that are destined for the building and the art with which 

 they are arranged. 



Mr. Walter Buller, our New Zealand government ornitho- 

 logist, writes thus — " This bird is invaluable to the orchards 

 an-1 gardens, where it subsists almost entirely [mark ye !] on 

 the destructive little aphis known as American blight." This 

 quoted statement is quite a mistake. Giving you my experi- 

 ence of them, they will not eat aphides of any kind if any 

 other kind of food can be obtained. If they do eat any 

 blight, they pick just a very little off our trees iu the depth 

 of winter. 



Now I will state my experience of their destructiveness in 

 my garden. As summer comes round and niy early Cherries 

 begin to colour, they commence wholesale havoc amongst 

 them, and fly from tree to tree, their doing which wo witness 

 with anything but pleasure, I can assure you. They can eat 



nice ripe Green Gages, Apricots too, and scoop out the inside 

 of a ripe Jargonelle Pear very clean, leaving the skeleton 

 hanging on the tree. They are fond of orchard fruits. Nothing 

 comes amiss. They seem to have become permanent residents 

 on the plains of Canterbury, and our fruit gardens are their 

 greatest attraction. They are the best hands I know at pick- 

 ing a Cherry and Plum stone clean, and disfiguring a handsome 

 rosy-cheeked Peach. They rank as one of our commonest birds, 

 and are most decidedly increasing in number annually, while 

 our other little insect-devouring native birds are decreasing iu 

 number from some cause. 



Again about Mr. Walter Buller. He thinks and writes that 

 " they are justly entitled to an occasional feed of Cherries or 

 to a small tithe of the ripe fruits, which they have done so 

 much to defend and cherish." Confound them ! say I. They 

 build their little tiny nests sometimes in my Elderberry bushes. 

 Rhododendrons, Evergreen Buckthorns, prickly double-flower- 

 ing Thorns, &c., which are generally pretty near the edge of 

 a walk. If anything in the shape of grease happens to be out- 

 side of our house, they are sure to pick it all up quite clean. 

 Fjom Mr. BuUer's opinion I beg to differ. As an extensive 

 grower of fruit for sale I think it too bad, when our crops are 

 just in and ready for market, that we should have them de- 

 stroyed by swarms of some hundreds of this little pest. How- 

 evur, let it be as it may, in a financial point of view I am 

 pounds sterling out of pocket through their depredations annu- 

 ally. There can be only one opinion as to their destructive 

 habits. I am quite certain of one thing — we shall be obliged 



