BIRDS IN THE GARDEN 115 



period of the year the blackbird will be found 

 robbing the fruit-trees, currant bushes, and straw- 

 berry beds, and nothing will render him harmless 

 now or then but a net, and if there is a tear in 

 the net he will find it out. Small wonder that as 

 he goes round his hedges and finds in them the 

 well-constructed nest of the tuneful robber, the 

 gardener, without scruple or mercy, tears it down. 

 But the act is of small avail, for the blackbird 

 which means to rear a family will not be dis- 

 couraged by one domestic catastrophe or two. 



What the tits are after as they tear up the 

 flower buds of the apple and pear-trees is still 

 something of a mystery. They certainly do not 

 eat the buds or any part of them, though occa- 

 sionally a bud-scale, which is not food, has been 

 found in the crop of a little wrecker shot in the 

 act. It is hardly more than a surmise that they 

 are searching for minute insects or larvae con- 

 cealed in the buds, but a careful examination of 

 buds thrown down by them has resulted in a 

 failure to find a brace of insects of any kind. 

 Probably, however, they break up the buds with 

 the hope of finding inserts, just as the blackbird 

 tears up the peas in the hope of finding grubs, 

 and as the rooks tear up the young 1 corn on the off- 

 chance of bringing up a wire worm or leather 

 jacket at the same time. That it is food they 

 are after is pretty nearly proved by the fact that 

 a counter-attraction has been found completely 

 successful in diverting their attention from the 

 trees. As long as pieces of fat, meat, or bones 

 (with something on them) are hung up in the 



