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Part VI I. -ODDS AND ENDS. 



CHAPTER I. 



MISCELLANEOUS PESTS. 



Ix this chapter we propose to deal briefly with a few 

 pests and otherwise that could not be included in pre- 

 vious sections. 



Birds. — Unfortunately, a good deal of ignorance pre- 

 vails among gardeners as to the real character of bird life 

 in relation to the garden. Because a blackbird or a 

 thrush steals a few cherries or stra\^'berries, a house 

 sparrow mischievously nips off the blooms of crocuses or 

 the leaves of carnations in spring, a chaffinch or a green- 

 finch purloins a few seeds, or a bullfinch or titmouse 

 vigorously pulls off the fruit buds of gooseberries, etc., in 

 winter, it is at once assumed that these buxls are enemies 

 and must be forthwith decimated. Such a notion is a 

 most erroneous one. Birds are friends rather than 

 enemies of the <]^arflener, and should be protected, not 

 destroyed. Blackbirds and thrushes feed on slugs and 

 snails; titmice and bullfinches on eggs or insects secreted 

 in the buds; the chaffinch and the greenfinch on weeds 

 and caterpillars; the starling on worms-, leather jackets, 



