April 30, 1874] 



NATURE 



509 



FLOWERS OF THE PRIMROSE DESTROYED 

 B V BIRDS 



WE have received a number of answers to Mr. 

 Darwin's letter on this subject in NATURE, vol. ix., 

 p. 482 ; these we have thought it advisable to bring to- 

 gether here. On the general question of the destruction 

 of flowers by birds, Prof. Thiselton Dj-er writes as 

 follows : — 



Mk. Darwin remarks that he lias never heard of any bird 

 in Europe feeding on nectar. There is perhaps one well-authen- 

 ticated instance in Gilbert White's "Selborne" (illuitiated edition, 

 p. 186) : " The pettichaps .... runs up the stems of the crown 

 imperials, and putting its head into the bells of those flowers, 

 sips the liquor which stands in the nectarine of each petal." 

 This is the more curious, because, according to Kirby and 

 .Spence (" Entomology," 7th edition, p. 3S4), this plant "tempts 

 in vain the passing hee probably aware of some noxious quality 

 that it possesses." I do not know how far this is true, but it has 

 a peculiar odour which makes it rather unpopular as a garden 

 plant. 



I have, in my notebook, another instance, also from theZUma'ir, 

 of a plant visited for nectar in an extra-tropical country. Mrs. 

 Barber relates that in South Africa "the long tubular flowers 

 of the aloe are well supplied with nectar, and this provision 

 affords during the winter season a continued store of food for 

 our beautiful sun-birds," the numerous species of the genus 

 Ncclariiiiii (Journ. R. Ilort. Soc., n.s., ii. 80). 



Two other cases of the destruction of flowers by birds occur 

 to me. I was assured this year that the flowers ot the common 

 crocus are persistently destroyed by sparrows, at least in the 

 neighbourhood of Hammersmith. The base of the perianth 

 tube, which is the usual seat of any secretion of nectar, is here 

 beneath the surface of the ground ; perhaps, however, the style 

 and stigma are attractive to the birds. I did not investigate 

 the matter at all closely, but my informant was an observant 

 person, who I think would be likely to have satisfied himself 

 that the sparrows really did the mischief, the effects of which 

 were obvious enough. If so, we have a clear instance in crocus- 

 eating of an acquired habit on their part. 



The other case, that of the destruction of flower-buds of 

 fruit-trees by bullfinches, is probably well known. The mis- 

 chief is said to be out of all proportion to any benefit the birds 

 can derive from it, as regards food. Such a visitation would 

 obviously tell heavdy against the plants in any country where 

 they formed part of the indigenous flora, and had to take their 

 chance with the rest. 



Dr. J. H. Gladstone writes, that in his garden the 

 flowers of the primroses have been similarly bitten off, 

 and the crocuses also. He says— 



One morning some weeks ago I especially remember 

 seeing the beds and the gravel walks strewn with the yellow 

 petals of the latter flower, which were severed from their 

 stalks, and bore abundant marks of the sharp beaks which had 

 torn them asunder. I cannot learn that anyone saw these 

 London birds at their destructive work, which was probably 

 done before any of us were stirring. 



Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs, of Plymouth, writes — 

 I HAVE been familiar with the fact to which Mr. Darwin 

 directs attention for as long a period as that during which 

 he s^ys it has engaged his own, without, however, my being 

 able to point out the author of the mischief. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of riymouth it is no uncommon thing to find the 

 flowers both of the primrose and polyanthus Intten off and lying 

 around the plants exactly as Mr. Darwin has described ; indeed, 

 so often does this occur here, that I have known it a source of 

 annojance to cultivators of the latter plant. Whi.n residing 

 some years ago at a house in the parish of Egg Buddand, about 

 four miles from Plymouth, I remember to have repeatedly seen 

 the polyanthus Hnwtrs in the grounds so destroyed, and to have 

 heard it asserted that the redbreast was the culprit ; but of this 

 no proof was brought forward. The locality is a land of springs 

 and streams, and it could not have been a want of water that 

 led the destroyer to do the work there. 



The tubular portion of the primrose is much infested by small 

 insects (thrips '!), and I have sometimes thought that a bird, for 

 the sake of feeding on these, might be led to bite the flowers ; 



but, on the other hand, they are so minute that one can scarcely 

 think they would attract its notice. 



I would say, in reply to Mr Darwin's queries, that primroses 

 .tre in profusion about Plymouth (at least beyond the immediate 

 neighbouriiood of the town, whence they have been rooted out 

 by wretched fern- and wild flower-grubbers), but 1 have never 

 seen the flowers bitten off to such an extent ,"S in the small 

 Kentish wood he refers to, or in a sufficiently large quantity to 

 materially afliect the numbers of the species here. 



The Rev. H. C. Key, of Stretton Rectory, Hertford, 

 says that primroses being in great abundance in his 

 neighbourhood, he was led by Mr. Darwin's letter to 

 make a careful search for flowers bittten ol'f in the way he 

 describes, but he failed to find even one. 



It is obvious that the abundance of other food for which birds 

 have a preference — such as apple, pear, plum, and cherry 

 blossoms afford — may possibly have saved our primrose flowers 

 from destruction ; but, taking into consideration the fact that 

 animal food must necessarily be supplied to the young birds at 

 this season, I should be disposed to suggest that the primroses 

 Mr. Darwin speaks of have been mutilated by birds rather for 

 the sake of procuring thrips and otlier beetles, which are 

 attracted by the nectar, than for the nectar itself. 



I find the untouched primrose flowers here swarm with beetles 

 and acari ; but the great profusion of apple, and pear-blossom, 

 &c., close at hand, may prove more attractive to the birds from 

 the flowers being more open, and therefore more easily accessible. 



Mr. G. M. Seabroke writes — 



I HAVE observed the same thing as he relates in my small 

 garden in this town. Nearly all the early buds from some twenty 

 primrose plants were bitten off, and birds of some sort were un- 

 doubt-edly the perpetrators of the mischief I laid the blame on 

 the sparrows, but did not see them in the act. This is the first 

 year that I have noticed this form of depredation. 



Mr. T. R. Stebbing, of Torquay, writes as follows :— 



A FORTNIGHT ago the bank on either side of the road from 

 Kingsbridge Road Station to Salcombe were covered, tor many 

 miles, with a brilliant profusion of primroses in bloom. In all 

 this long range of country, eighteen mfles in all, there was no 

 appearance anywhere of that destruction of blossoms as to which 

 Mr. Darwin makes inquiry. The attention of my companion 

 and mjself was especially directed to the primroses throughout 

 our route, not merely by the lavish and unexpected beauty of the 

 display, but by the look-out which we were keeping up for white 

 or red varieties. Among the myriads of plants with the ordi- 

 nary yellow blossom we noted five with white and two with 

 pinkish flowe.s. On returning over a portion of the same road 

 ten days later, we detected as many as seven plants with the 

 pale-red or pink flowers, but none of these were fJooming freely 

 like the white and the yellow flowenng-planT;s in the same 

 district. 



It may be worth noticing that this great stream of primroses 

 flowed down from the rather bleak upland near the railway right 

 into the fertile and sheltered valley of Salcombe, so that in one 

 dfstrict or the other the birds might have been expected to seek 

 the nectar, had they been to the manner bom, in this part ot the 

 country. 



A correspondent, E. T. S., says that — 



In the north-west comer of Hampshire the birds have the 

 same taste as in Kent for the nectar of primroses and polyan- 

 thuses. A few weeks ago a correspondent wrore thence that 

 this .spring the blackbii-ds "were as bad as peacocks," whose 

 well-known habit of cutting ofi' the blossoms of polyanthuses, 

 carnations, lilies, and any particularly choice tropical plant that 

 they can get hold of, makes them a gardener's despair. A pea- 

 cock who resided for a short time in the neighbourfiood referred 

 to, might possibly have taught the native birds the trick, but 

 this is hardly probable, as he died three winters ago, and thft 

 present 5 ear, when all spring flowers have bloomed earlier and 

 more abundantly than usual, is the first in which his example 

 has been extensively followed. I should doubt the practice 

 being limited to a single species. Sparrows certainly gather 

 flowers very carefully ; I have seen them almost strip a bed of 

 the variegated arabis, though in this case the flower-stalks were 

 carried away and used, not for food, but in nest-huildir" '^■"°= 

 any other bird use fresh flowers for that purpose ? 



Does 



