JOURNAL OF THE WILD BIRD INVESTIGATION SOCIETY. 



II 



^prciiiiint;' to j3(>ds. In llie same yarclcii iht-y 

 annually stripped every cherry tree just as the 

 fruit was colouring. Less than a mile away 

 1 saw a Cdlom- of these birds follow miil;' the 

 ])loui;ii, and being curiotis to learn their object 

 1 shot three, and found iheir crops full of 

 wirew I inns. 



Uodks li;ive been so well studied as to their 

 (lid tliai I only add the following obserxation 

 with reference to fruit destruction. ()n one 

 ■occasion ahotU five hundred of these liirds 

 settled on an apple and pear orchard, and in 

 about an hour destroyed half of a good crop. 



.\niongst tlie warblers the F5lackcap has 

 become a pest to fruit, e\'en worse than the 

 Lesser W'hitethroat. Both can get through 

 ordinary netting, so that cherries, currants 

 and raspberries suffer considerably. Last year 

 the Ulackcap destroyed the figs as fast as they 

 ripened. Fiftx' vears ago this bird always 

 visited a c-Jtnnp of red and black elderberries, 

 and remained well into .\ovember each vear. 



Blue, Cireat, .Marsh, and Cole Tits annually 

 ciestro\- the garden peas, late crops are mostly 

 eaten b\- the first two species, which are per- 

 sistent in attack. On one occasion the M<'irsh- 

 Tit destro\ed half the blooms of inside peach 

 trees, and there were no insects in the 

 blooms. 



The (jreat Tit destroxed a hive oi bees, 

 one of four. It was very amusing to see the 

 Tits fighting the bees. Thev succeeded in 

 drawing them out in winter by tapping at the 

 entrance to the hive. The spot selected for 

 dissection was a gooseberrv bush, and the 

 heaj) of remains of bees was quite six inches 

 high. The .Spotted Flycatcher has a similar 

 repiuation, bm fortunatelv it is very rare. 



The Bullfinch, king of bud eaters, is some- 

 times beaten bv the House-Sparrow. In 

 jirivate gardens .several years go by without 

 an attack, for no apparent rea.son. The cater- 

 pillar of Toririx viridumi, L. is often fed to 

 the young, and also to the nestlings of the 

 Rook, Starling and Jackd;iw. 



I he chief destroyers of ri])e corn are the 

 House-.Sparrow and W'oocl-I'igeon. In 

 Oxfordshire, bordering the Chiltern Mills, the 

 Greenfinch and C'haffinch take their place, 

 bul the Tree-.Sparrow nia\- sometime, as at 

 .\sion Rowant, replace the House-Sparrow, 

 where a big grove of bamboos bordering 

 a stream favoured their as.senibling in that 

 localit\-. Twehe years ago less than lift\- 

 roosted in the bamboos, two vears ago there 

 were manv htmdreds. 



I have often foimd wirewdrms in the crop 

 of the Partridge. Pheasants on one occasion 

 pulled all the crowns off a large bed of Lil\- 

 of the \'alley. The Robin, generalh' free 

 from mischief, at times attacks ripe grapes, 

 and red currants are also damaged by them. 

 rintle-13o\"es, formerlv not abundant enough 

 to do much damage, are now, in some locali- 

 ties, proving verv mischievous to sprouting 

 crops and ripe corn. These birds have vastly 

 increased during the last twenty \'ears. 



The Crossbill, now that it is found in so 

 few localities, gix'es few chances to stud\' its 

 diet. In 1S72 1 had imder observation for 

 some weeks a large flock of a hundred or more 

 in Cleveland, N'orkshire. They first fed on 

 the seeds of the larch and Scotch fir, and 

 afterwards on the young shoots oi silver fir. 

 Several times since I have seen them feeding 

 on various fir cones. 



.Siskins annually visit alder for its .seed. I 

 observed them in considerable numbers in a 

 big grove in Oxfordshire. In Hertfordshire 

 an Abies canadensis is annually covered 

 with cones, and is visited by a flock of 

 Siskins. 



Respecting tiie results of stomach anahses, 

 the various items mentioned show to a small 

 extent how results can vary, even in the same 

 locality, bm generally the evidence obtained 

 from such leaves no doubt as to the verdict 

 for good or e\il ; field observations must al.so 

 be carried out over a wide area and for some 

 duration of time. 



