74 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 
grown larva of Hadena oleracea. Only once was one 
detected eating garden fruit—a black currant; but I 
several times saw them swallowing elder berries. 
Tree - pipits were seen picking small berries from the 
ground, and turning them in their bills before discarding 
them, but they were never noticed actually to swallow any. 
Wrens, Tits, Flycatchers, Finches, and Hedge -sparrows, 
I think, all totally disregarded fruit, though both Blue and 
Great Tits did some harm to peas, damaging a good many 
more pods than they actually rifled. The only recognised 
food taken by the local Tits that visited us was caterpillars, 
but the birds did much hunting on the ground and were 
constantly carrying into the branches to hammer and 
dissect, objects which I could not identify. Bullfinches 
visited the borders every morning, exclusively confining 
their attention to pansy seeds, of which they hardly left a 
head intact. It seems a peculiar taste, but it is one that 
I see them gratify every year. 
Great Tits, to a lesser degree, and Chaffinches, regularly, 
attack heads of honesty (Lunuaria biennis) as soon as the 
seeds ripen each year; the Finches also strip every pod 
from a plant of Corydalis lutea growing within a foot or 
two of the window at which I write. Evidently they have 
discovered a liking for its somewhat pungent seeds; but, 
curiously enough, they never seem to touch plants of the 
same species growing in other parts of the garden. 
The Chaffinch is probably the most universally common 
bird throughout the country. Here it is abundant, and 
gets surprisingly tame; but of all the birds that visit the 
garden, it is by far the most destructive to small fruit. This 
destruction takes place, not in autumn when the fruit is ripe, 
but in early spring when the buds first begin to swell, and is 
continued till the bushes are fully greened with foliage ; 
and the buds are generally so effectually destroyed that 
whole branches remain absolutely bare of either leaf or 
fruit—lasting monuments of the unwelcome presence of an 
otherwise attractive and friendly bird. 
One Great Tit this year was most persistent in its 
attentions to one of our bee-hives. The stock was not 
