154 THE GOLDFINCH 



to the timber-grower exists, as it feeds largely on the tree's worst 

 enemies, and though visiting fruit plantations and accused of de- 

 stroying black-currant buds, even attacking pears and apples, these 

 accusations are not verified by our experience. True, the cole tit 

 will pull blcssom buds to pieces, but this is not for the vegetable 

 food, for if examined, the buds will be found to contain the larvae of 

 some insect, so that the work is of a repressive nature. The tits 

 eat the caterpillar and chrysalis of the bud-moth. 



MARSH TITMOUSE. To the osier grower the'marsh-tit is particu- 

 larly valuable, also to the alder, poplar and willow growers, as it 

 feeds upon the insect pests of these plants, and feeding on 'weed 

 seeds, particularly those of the thistle, is useful to the country. 



HEDGE-SPARROW. Common and yet most valuable of birds 

 in the garden, field, or wood. All the year it works in favour of 

 the forester, farmer, and gardener, and for services rendered visits 

 homesteads most grateful for bread-crumbs and scraps bestowed by 

 the housewife in hard weather. The earliest in nesting of the 

 caterpillar -devouring birds, the bird-nester is as ruthless as the 

 cuckoo, and worse in effect, as a brood destroyed*by the heartless 

 boy means many caterpillars undestroyed without any compensat- 

 ing advantage as given by the artful cuckoo. Though said to be 

 fond of bullaces, we have never known this bird interfere with 

 cultivated fruits. 



GOLDFINCH. Happily the goldfinch lives, thanks to the keen eye 

 kept on bird-catchers by policemen, if for nothing less than to set 

 a pattern to Parish and District Councils in keeping down thistle and 

 sowthistle seeds that are allowed to perfect on waysides, waste 

 places, and vacant plots and broadcasted by wind over miles of 

 country. Even the bird milliner is suffering from a dearth of this 

 bird's beautiful plumage, so effectively carried out by County Council 

 officials are the Wild Birds' Protection Acts. Thus the goldfinch is 

 once more becoming plentiful in some districts, and though much 

 depleted by wary bird-catchers to meet the demand for cage birds 

 by bird-fanciers, who are often loudest in acclaiming against en- 

 slaving the wild birds of the country, the bird works mightily in 

 the behalf of the tree-lover and the fruit-grower during its breed- 

 ing season, and afterwards in destroying countless weed-seeds of 

 the worst description. It loves apple orchards because of the cater- 

 pillars and other pests the trees provide for rearing their young, 

 and, unfortunately, no other birds are so easily caught in trap cages 

 by means of a call bird and baited with canary and hemp seed, 

 when fully fledged. In this way the fruit-grower often acts, especi- 

 ally if a cage-bird fancier, and by sale of captured birds or by cross- 

 breeding can make money, yet withal clamours for the protection 

 of hawks to save the fruit crops from bud-destroying and fruit- 

 pilfering birds. 



WOODPECKERS. The great spotted woodpecker and the lesser 



