CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



137 



an "avian rat," or bird that should be 

 exterminated. That it is far too plenti- 

 ful no one doubts, but seeing that practi- 

 cally all modern houses provide numerous 

 and safe nesting places for it this is 

 scarcely surprising. 



"It is extremely difBcult to arrive at 

 any satisfactory and convincing conclu- 

 sion as to the precise economic status 

 of this species, but after carefully con- 

 sidering the results obtained from an 

 examination of the stomach contents of 

 404 adult birds, and of 42 and 287 nest- 

 ling birds, and also from an examination 

 of the faeces, the writer is of the opinion 

 that if this species were considerably 



reduced in numbers, the good that it 

 would do would probably more than com- 

 pensate for the harm, especially in fruit 

 growing districts. 



"Any investigation of the economic 

 status of most species of wild birds is in- 

 complete, and to a large extent mislead- 

 ing, that does not deal with the question 

 of the nature of the food fed to the young 

 bird or nestling, for during the nestling 

 period the food of the parent birds con- 

 sists largely of insects, slugs, spiders, and 

 worms, and that of the young almost en- 

 tirely so, and the amount of food con- 

 sumed is greater than at any other season 

 of the year." 



