WEEKLY CALENDATCIAL REGISTER. 135 



wall to admit of the sticks being perpendicular to the 

 surface of it. Place the cords of the netting in the 

 notches, and the sticks will then keep their position. 

 The netting will thus be in a strain, and at a sufficient 

 distance from the fruit to keep it out of the reach of 

 the birds. These precautions will be found necessary, 

 as the delicious flavour of the grapes now makes them 

 an object of intense desire, to a numerous class of birds 

 that frequent the garden. 



These little feathered creatures having been industri- 

 ously engaged, during the preceding part of the year, 

 in rendering the most important services to man, by 

 destroying the larvae of a host of insects that prove 

 destructive to vegetation, now come to enjoy their share 

 of the bounties of Providence; and it would, perhaps, 

 be difficult to prove that their claim is not as well 

 founded as that of the lords of the creation. They waste, 

 however, and spoil so much, in comparison with what 

 they really eat, that no other course can be pursued 

 than that of rejecting their claim altogether. Amongst 

 these claimants, the blue titmouse (torn -tit), parus cce- 

 ruleus, will, in genera], be found to be the most perse- 

 vering. This elegant little bird visits the grapes about 

 the middle of October, and selects the ripest for exami- 

 nation. If the flavour be agreeable, the work of de- 

 struction commences, but if not, an interval of a week 

 or ten days elapses, when a second examination takes 

 place, and the fruit being then ripe, the banquet begins, 

 by his attacking invariably the finest grapes on the vine, 

 and consuming about a sixth part of each berry, leav- 

 ing the other five-sixths to rot and waste. After this, 

 he never ceases to pay his daily visits, as long as a sin- 

 gle bunch remains, and the slightest chance appears 

 of a possibility of getting at it. 



As soon as any shoots are divested of their fruit, 

 they should be pruned immediately. 



