ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF ESTABLISHING '^ A CLOSE TIME/' 95 



rious insects, published at Lemberg in 1851, calculates that a single tit 

 will devour 1000 insects' eggs in a single dag, and besides, the tits feed their 

 young chiefly on insects' eggs and caterpillars. Count Wodzicki mentions in 

 particular Sitta europcea, Qerthia familiaris, and the Eegulidce, as being 

 useful in destroying Bombyx pini. He also mentions that the Woodpeckers 

 are of great utility in destroying the following insects, viz. Noctua pinastri, 

 Geonietm piniaria, Sphinx p>inastn, Tenthredo jnni, T. septentrional is, Bos- 

 trichus typographus, and B. clialcographus. M. C. von Heyden also remarks 

 (Journal fiir Ornithologie, 1859, pp. 316, 317) that in the winter Sitta 

 europcea and Parus major feed on the larvae of Cecidomyia fagi, the Beech- 

 gall insect, and states as follows : — " The well-known conical gaU of this 

 insect is often found in large numbers on the upper side of the beech-leaves. 

 In the autumn it becomes hard like wood, and falls off the leaf. These birds 

 then search carefully on the ground under the trees for the galls, and after 

 pecking a hole (generally in the side of the point of the gall), pick out and 

 devour the insect. The hole is generally so small that the insect cannot 

 be extracted with the beak, and the bird must use its tongue for that pur- 

 pose. It is curious that the bird should bore a hole at the hard point of the 

 gall when the base is merely closed by the thin paper-like web of the 

 insect." 



Professor Buckman has also recently observed that the Blue-tit {Farm 

 cceruleus) destroys the flies which make the oak-galls, which in many parts of 

 the country threaten to ruin the young oak-plantations. 



Many of our seed-eating birds are useful, not only because they feed on 

 the seeds of injurious weeds, but also on destructive insects ; and our common 

 Yellowhammer {Emberiza citrinella) feeds with avidity on the caterpillar of 

 the white Butterfly (Pieris rapm). 



Mr. Mewes, the well-known Swedish naturalist, states (Ofversigt af Kongl. 

 Vetenskaps Akademiens Forhandlingar, 1868, p. 256) that at Borgholm in 

 Sweden he found the oak-woods near the castle almost stripped of their leaves 

 by Tortrix viridana, and that numbers of birds were feeding on the larva; of 

 this insect, amongst which he names the common Crossbill {Loxia curvi- 

 rostra), which, though in general a seed-eater, was in that instance doing 

 good service in eating insects. He states that flocks of these birds were 

 busily employed in destroying this insect. 



The much-persecuted Sparrow (Passer domesticiis) is also a good friend to 

 the agriculturist, and amply repays him for the little corn he may take by 

 destroying many injurious insects, and in eating the seeds of many rank 

 weeds. 



During the winter the Tree-sparrow (Passer montanus) feeds chiefly on 

 the seeds of Urtjca divica, Chenopodium album, and Polygonum avicidare, all 

 of which are injurious weeds. 



It is true that the House-sparrow is a grain-eating bird, but its nestlings 

 are fed chiefly on insects. Mr. Berthold Wicke, of Gottingen (Henneberg's 

 Journal fiir Landwirthschaft, 16 Jahrgang, 3 Heft) examined the contents of 

 the stomachs of 118 sparrows procured between the 21st of April and 24th of 

 June, and gives the following results of his investigations : — Of these birds, 45 

 were adults and 73 young, ranging from the small naked nestling to the full- 

 fledged bird. In the stomachs of three of the adult birds he found only grain, 

 m one nothing but the remains of a few beetles ; one had the stomach and 

 crop so full of grain that he counted 50 grains ; one stomach contained the 

 seed of weeds, pieces of peas and seeds of Stellaria media, and the rest con- 

 tamed corn with the remains of beetles ; and in one was the entire skin of a 

 Melolontha vidgaris. 



