THE GARDEN WARBLER 211 



not be any holes in it or apertures by which the birds can gain 

 access to the fruit, for the blackcaps are very prying, and the worst 

 pilferers of fruit of our summer visitors. 



GARDEN WARBLER. For great service in respect of destroying 

 small leaf-rolling caterpillars on fruit bushes or trees and ligneous 

 plants generally, also for eating caterpillars of the white cabbage 

 butterfly, this bird takes a little ripe fruit, such as late cherries, 

 currants and raspberries. Its attacks, never very pronounced, 

 may be warded off by small mesh netting. 



FIELDFARE. A winter visitor, and feeding upon worms, larvae, 

 insects, seeds and wild fruits, such as berries of mountain-ash, 

 hawthorn (haws), holly, briar (hips), etc., no complaint is lodged 

 against the fieldfare by any person other than the admirer of 

 autumn and winter berried plants, which are shorn of their beauty 

 during severe weather by many other members of the thrush 

 family as well as fieldfares. But the birds afford sport and adjunct 

 to the table, therefore are sought after by some sportsmen and 

 esteemed by some gastronomists. The gun is mostly used for bring- 

 ing down fieldfares in Britain, but on the Continent the whole 

 thrush family is taken in snares. There are two methods of hang- 

 ing the hair nooses, but in both the snarer uses twigs about 18 

 in. in length. In one the twig is bent in the form of the figure 

 6, the tail end running through a slit cut in the upper part of the 

 twig. The other method is to sharpen a twig at both ends and 

 insert the points into a stem of underwood, thus forming a bow, 

 of which the stem forms the string below the noose : and hanging 

 from the lower part of the bow is placed a small branch, with a 

 few berries of mountain-ash or other tree taken by the birds as 

 food : this is fixed to the bow by inserting the stalk into a slit 

 in the wood. The noose is attached to the twig, and so arranged 

 as to hang neatly in the middle of the bow, and the lower part 

 about three fingers' breadth from the bottom. The bird alighting 

 on the lower side of the bow, and bending its neck to reach the 

 berries, places its head in the noose, and then the fowler finds 

 the victim hanging by the neck. The whole thrush family, which 

 includes the blackbird, song and missel thrush, may be captured 

 by the methods or modifications of them, foreshewn : and as they 

 are, including redwings, nearly, if not quite, as good food as field- 

 fares, some compensation for damage inflicted on fruit crops may 

 be had for the disagreeable task of killing them. 



REDWING. This bird comes under the same category as the 

 fieldfare in proclivities, and is usually associated with it in visits 

 to this country. 



TURTLEDOVE. Probably no visitor to Britain is more appreciated 

 in coverts, parks and pleasure grounds than this ; the cooing and 

 evolution of the birds appealing to both ear and eye in the most 

 agreeable way. But turtledoves may be protected so closely as, 



