24 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



case it has turned out that the buds pulled off were already 

 the home of a larva, which would effectually have prevented 

 their arriving at maturity. Their natural food is to be found 

 on trees and amongst herbage, and consists of all those 

 multitudinous insects that, if allowed to multiply unchecked, 

 would devastate our crops and wither up our flowers. 



" Let, therefore, the titmouse be permitted to follow its 

 avocation as it chooses, and to range the fruit trees, fields, 

 and gardens unchecked. For, in trutb, the little bird is 

 working with all its might in our behalf, and is attacking 

 our worst pests at their very root and source. Its micro- 

 scopical eye discovers the eggs of noxious insects which 

 have been deposited in spots where they will find plentiful 

 nourishment when they are hatched, and in half-a-dozeii 

 pecks it will destroy the whole future brood. The eggs of 

 the terrible leaf-roller caterpillar, so tiny but so destructive, 

 are devoured in vast numbers, as are those of that plentiful 

 nuisance, the little ermine moth," writes the Rev. J. GK 

 Wood, and we can fully endorse what he says. 



Wagtails, the Motacillidce of naturalists, do good service 

 in thinning the swarms of summer insects ; we doubt, in fact, 

 whether any one has ever called their usefulness in question, 

 while their ways are dainty and their gracefulness con- 

 spicuous. 



Larks. Against skylarks stands the indictment of scratch- 

 ing newly sown grain out of the soil, and the little excava- 

 tions made for this purpose are often to be seen during the 

 spring months. Wheat or barley properly drilled in, we 

 should fancy, w^ould be far beyond their reach. Nor is it 

 difficult to argue in their favour that even a chance of 

 feeding thus must extend over a very limited period. At 

 nesting time, when many mouths have to be fed, grain of 

 all sorts is out of reach, and resource must be had to the 

 abundant and ever present harvest of seeds from weeds, 

 wireworms, insects, etc. 



The chaffinch feeds " in January and February 011 seeds, 



