Drummond. — On Introduced Birds. 241 



as they look upon it as no friend, but an enemy. One of the cor- 

 respondents, at Waihou, Piako County, reports that the black- 

 bird, in conjunction with the thrush, has practically put a stop 

 to the growing of grapes, plums, peaches, gooseberries, apples, 

 or pears on a small scale, and this gentleman sees absolutely no 

 good in the bird — a view which is taken by many other people 

 in New Zealand. 



Other Small Birds. 



I have already classed the skylark, placing it next to the 

 sparrow in respect to destructiveness. It is often seen pulling 

 up springing wheat, and it is specially troublesome in the gar- 

 dens where early seeds, such as turnips and cabbages, are sown, 

 pulling the young plants out of the ground as they are just shoot- 

 ing above the surface. 



Very few of the correspondents have a good word to say for 

 the song-thrush, which is placed fairly high in the list of mis- 

 takes. An observer at Rissington, Hawke's Bay, however, 

 sends the following story of the thrush : " For about thirty 

 days in the year, until well into January, a thrush has come to 

 my farm morning after morning. Over an area of about 300 

 square yards he collects worms, and flies with them to his mate, 

 taking sometimes two or three at a time. I have watched him 

 frequently, and from 7.30 a.m. to 8 a.m. he takes fifty worms. 

 I think I underestimate it in putting it at two hundred worms 

 a day. He also takes slugs and insects." 



The greenfinch is described sweepingly as the farmer's greatest 

 enemy when grain is ripening. It is very plentiful in the open 

 country, where it is seen in large numbers. The first green- 

 finches of which I have been able to secure any information 

 were liberated in Christchurch in 1863, where a pair were pur- 

 chased at auction for five guineas. They soon nested, but the 

 only occupant at first was one little greenfinch. Before the 

 warm summer days had passed, however, a second family of 

 five was reared, and in the following winter a flock of eight was 

 seen daily. In the next year, late in the autumn, more than 

 twenty were flushed from a little patch of chick weed, and it was 

 not long before the birds had spread so widely that their note 

 became a well-known sound in Canterbury. It is stated that in 

 the Central Otago district the greenfinch is the worst offender 

 of all in the orchards, as it attacks the trees while they are still 

 in flower and just as the fruit is forming. In some orchards in 

 that district, it is reported, the birds have taken nine-tenths of 

 the fruit-crop. The chaffinch and the redpoll have appeared at 

 Tutira, in Hawke's Bay, within the past two years. Mr. Guthrie- 



