﻿•6 Birds 



orchards, and cornfields alike. The amount of grain devoured 

 and spoiled by sparrows throughout the country in autumn and 

 winter is enormous. From dissections made throughout the 

 whole year, corn was found to be the chief food in each month. 

 The insects eaten by sparrows would, in their absence, form part 

 of the daily diet of wholly insectivorous birds which the noxious 

 sparrow drives away. This bird is most destructive to peas, 

 bush-fruit and orchard-trees, especially pear and other fruit buds, 

 as well as garden plants. 



Both the wood-pigeon and the stock-dove may be classed as 

 entirely injurious to the farmer ; while to the fruit-grower the 

 bullfinch is very harmful by feeding on fruit buds. As many as 

 123 fruit buds (plum and damson) and numerous remains of the 

 same have been found in the crop and gizzard of a single bullfinch, 

 and these comprised its early morning meal. 



It is often said that birds only attack buds containing grubs or 

 some other insects. This, however, is an erroneous idea, as 

 during the winter, when birds feed upon them, they contain no 

 insects whatever. A few insects deposit their eggs on the smaller 

 branches, sometimes close to the base of the bud — not inside it — 

 and it is not until the expansion of the buds in spring that they 

 are attacked by larvae which hatch after expansion has taken place ; 

 consequently, buds that are attacked by birds during the winter 

 months, or very early in the year, are not eaten for the sake of the 

 grub inside, as is sometimes supposed. 



The collection of birds exhibited in illustration of this subject 

 merely represents types of familiar species which are of special 

 benefit to agriculture, and thus require protection and encourage- 

 ment throughout the British Islands. A very large number might 

 be added, such as the warblers, pipits, larks, wagtails and others 

 alluded to in the foregoing remarks. 



PHEASANT. 



Phasianus colchicus. 



Although it is generally supposed that the Pheasant was intro- 

 duced into this country by the Komans from the banks of the 

 Paver Phases — now the Eion — in Colchis, on the shores of the 

 Black Sea, nothing definitely is known on this point, and it 

 appears likely that it may have been indigenous to Britain. It 



