ISO BIRDS AND THEIR CHANGING HABITS 



in the soil in the search for food ; but Mr. 

 Service in his evidence states that, in his opinion, 

 it results from moulting and not from abrasion. 



Much the same story may be told of the 

 starling. The phenomenal increase of this 

 species within living memory is well known, 

 and for long they were regarded as an entirely 

 useful race, destroying, as they doubtless do, vast 

 quantities of ' leather jackets ' and other mis- 

 chievous grubs and insects. They, too, have 

 acquired new and unwelcome habits and tastes, 

 robbing the eggs and young of other birds. 



The bullfinch, a beautiful and interesting bird 

 that may certainly be included among those 

 species that are rapidly increasing in number 

 and extending their range, has always been 

 looked upon as of a somewhat shy and retiring 

 nature, more especially at their nesting time, 

 when their well-known call-note is much less 

 frequently heard, and they themselves appear 

 as a rule to avoid observation, creeping in and 

 under copse and bushes rather than flying 

 openly among them as was earlier their wont. 



Personal observation, however, detects a 

 seeming change, among some individuals at 

 least Two years ago a pair built and hatched 

 their young in a low bush not twelve yards from 

 a window of my house. Last spring a pair 



