26 FOOD OF SMALL BIRDS. 



that the base of a rick has been found entirely sur- 

 rounded by the straw, one end resting on the ground, 

 the other against the stack, as it slid down from the 

 top, and as regularly placed, as if by hand, and so 

 completely was the thatching pulled off, that it was 

 found necessary to remove the corn. 



That some guess may be formed of the possible 

 extent of good or evil occasioned by small birds, we 

 annex the result of our own observations, on the 

 precise quantity of food consumed by certain birds, 

 either for their own support, or that of their young, 

 remarking at the same time, that the difference ob- 

 served in the instances, may be partly accounted for 

 by the different quantity of food required by young 

 birds, at different periods of their growth. 



Sparrows feed their young 36 times in an hour, 

 which, calculating at the rate of 14 hours a day, in 

 the long days of Spring and Summer, gives 3500 

 times per week; a number corroborated on the 

 authority of another writer, who calculated the 

 number of caterpillars destroyed in a week, to be 

 about 3400. 



Redstarts were observed to feed their young with 

 little green grubs from gooseberry-trees, 23 times in 

 an hour, which, at the same calculation, amounts to 

 2254 times in a week; but more grubs than one 

 were usually imparted each time. 



Chaffinches, at the rate of about 35 times an hour, 

 for five or six times together, when they would pause 

 and not return for intervals of eight or ten minutes : 

 the food was green caterpillars. 



The Titmouse, 16 times in an hov,r. 



The comparative weight consumed was as follows: 



