6 The Food of Some British Wild Birds. 



blackbird, 12 ; song thrush, 9 ; missel thrush, 3 ; whitethroat, 5 ; 

 blackcap, 3; blue tit, 34; greenfinch, 11; chaffinch, 27; linnet, 4; 

 bullfinch, 23; yellow bunting, 4; jay, 22; magpie, 8; jackdaw, 11; 

 rook, 14; skylark, 6; starling, 16; the paper, however, contains 

 much valuable information. Herman and Owen's work (65) issued 

 in 1909, can scarcely be regarded as a serious contribution to the 

 subject. 



In 1910 my report on the feeding habits of the rook was pub- 

 lished (31). The inquiry extended over forty-one counties of 

 England and Wales during the whole of 1909. The conclusions 

 arrived at were based upon 830 post-mortems. Further contributions 

 dealing with the food of the starling (32), and bullfinch (33), fol- 

 lowed. Dunlop (39) in the same year published an interesting 

 paper on the feeding habits of owls. 



Florence (47) in 1912 published the results of an examination 

 of 616 stomach contents; as in the case of Newstead's paper, the 

 number of individuals was generally too small. For comparison, 

 they were : blackbird, 29 ; song thrush, 6 ; missel thrush, 3 ; blue 

 tit, 8; greenfinch, 11; chaffinch, 34; bullfinch, 2; yellow bunting, 

 21; magpie, 1; jackdaw, 1; rook, 162; skylark, 2; starling, 28; 

 wood pigeon, 11 ; rock dove, 2. 



Hammond (60) gave a very valuable and detailed account of 

 the food of the starling and skylark, and in the same year I pub- 

 lished a paper on the food of nestling birds (34), also a general 

 review of the economic status of wild birds (35). 



The relation of wild birds to forestry and as destroyers and 

 distributers of weed seeds I have dealt with in two recent papers 

 (36 and 36&) which are reproduced in the present work with some 

 slight alteration. 



In the United States of America very valuable work has been 

 done by Beal (10-20), Judd (70-77), McAtee (82-87), Palmer (96 and 

 97), A. K. Fisher (42-45), Bryant (23-25), Barrows (8 & 9), and 

 others. Nash (91) and Eifrig (41) have treated of the subject with 

 reference to the Birds of Canada, French (49 and 50), and Oleland 

 (27) respecting those of Australia, and Mason and Maxwell-Lefroy 

 (89) on the Birds of India. 



