26 



The Food of Some British Wild Birds. 



Smith (105) spates : " He does some mischief in the autumn by 

 pecking apples and pears, but all the rest of the year he is looking 

 for small insects and their eggs." 



Post-mortem Records. 



Field Observations. 



The only actual injury I have observed this bird commit is 

 pecking holes in ripe pears, on the other hand I have watched it 

 for hours feeding on various species of Scale Insects and Aphids. 

 Although I have kept a careful watch I have never seen them eat 

 peas, and in no case that has been sent in to me, where the par- 

 ticulars furnished have stated: "shot while eating peas," have I 

 found any trace of peas, on the other hand the stomachs have 

 usually been full of insects. 



Food of Nestlings. 



Ten post-mortems have been made. The food consisted entirely 

 of fragments of small Lepidopterous larvae and aphids. In no case 

 was vegetable matter of any kind found. 



