n6 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



vicinity, no tit will trouble about buds. Their 

 appetite for meat, cooked or raw, is insatiable, 

 and they become very bold in the attempt to gratify 

 it. There is, indeed, a record, on unimpeachable 

 authority, of blue tits entering the window of a 

 butcher's shop and feeding on the meat exposed 

 for sale. Another tale is told of an orchard owner 

 who secured immunity for his trees by hanging 

 up in one of them a dead dog, and if he only 

 took the trouble toi skin the dog there is 

 no reason why his story should not be accepted 

 as true. As a carnivore the tit is superior to 

 prejudice. 



The bullfinch, as most people know, is one of 

 the worst of garden pests in the bud season, in the 

 districts where it abounds. Bully's red breast has 

 made him a favourite with the birdcatcher, and 

 hence the species is never abundant in the vicinity 

 of towns. Another finch, however, which goes 

 through the world with no very bad name, can 

 make himself very troublesome in the spring. On 

 the balance the greenfinch is emphatically a useful 

 bird, consuming as it does enormous quantities of 

 weed seeds, and particularly those of the charlock 

 or wild mustard. But it has one troublesome 

 passion, for it is ready at any time to risk its 

 head for a meal of germinating radish seed, and 

 it has just completely cleared a bed for me. 

 The unnetted bed of radishes which it discovers is 

 doomed. 



