﻿4 Birds 



II. BIRDS BENEFICIAL TO 

 AGRICULTURE. 



The number of birds recognised as British amounts to about 

 440 species, 200 of these being occasional visitors to our islands, 

 133 are resident species, 51 are summer visitors which breed here, 

 and 55 are winter visitors. Of the entire list, about 120 species 

 may be regarded as decidedly beneficial to agriculture generally. 

 These embrace the game birds (pheasant, partridges, quail and 

 grouse), the crakes or rails, black-headed gull, plovers, kestrel, 

 owls, nightjar, swift, the swallows, woodpeckers, flycatchers, 

 wrens, many of the thrush family, including song-thrush, redwing, 

 hedge-sparrow, robin, chats, and wheatear. The warblers, shrikes, 

 titmice, nuthatch, tree-creeper, wagtails, pipits, larks, starling and 

 rook (the last two if kept in check), also the jackdaw, magpie 

 and jay are beneficial to the farmer, owing to the large number 

 of noxious insects destroyed by these birds. 



Among those which do much good during the greater part of the 

 year are some of the finches (such as the goldfinch, linnet and 

 chaffinch) and buntings, owing to the quantity of insects devoured 

 by these birds and their young during the nesting season, also 

 seeds of various weeds which largely comprise their winter diet ; 

 the good done is thus greater than the harm caused in the amount 

 of agricultural seed consumed by them. Both the starling and the 

 rook must be looked upon as very useful birds to the agriculturist 

 so long as their numbers are kept in check; but under the present 

 conditions there are far too many of these birds throughout the 

 country. The prodigious flocks occurring all over the country are 

 far in excess of the amount of their natural food-supply, conse- 

 quently they have acquired the habit of feeding on newly-sown 

 grain ; and this statement applies to both birds. The destruction 

 of cherries by starlings is notorious, and during recent years the 

 pear crop has suffered considerably in some districts from the 

 attacks of the same bird. Woods in many parts of the country 

 have been poisoned by the vast assemblages of starlings for 

 roosting purposes. Flocks of thousands congregate in certain areas ; 

 in consequence, not only the foliage of the trees, but the entire 

 undergrowth has been destroyed by their droppings, and the game 



