146 MERULIDjE. 



strewn about, and inferred that it had been torn up by either 

 the thrush or blackbird in search of food : from what is just 

 stated, there can be little doubt of the correctness of my in- 

 ference. Mr. Moore, now curator of the Botanic Garden, Glas- 

 nevin, Dublin, informed me in the last-mentioned year, that when 

 he was in the College Botanic Garden near that city, he remarked 

 several species of plants to be much injured by birds ; and . more 

 especially the rare alpine plant, Cherleria sedoides. In the 

 month of September of two different years, I remarked an 

 old male blackbird regaling on the flowers of a fine large 

 bushy Fuchsia coccinea, in the midst of which he remained 

 for a considerable time; on the former occasion, which was 

 at the end of the month, the plant was profusely in berry, 

 but retained only a few flowers, — the last ones of summer, — 

 yet of these only did he partake ; in the other instance it was 

 covered with bloom. In the middle of June, 1843, two of my 

 relatives living at Ballysillan, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, were 

 attracted during a few successive days by numbers of blackbirds, 

 thrushes, sparrows, and robins, flying to the grass of the verdure 

 garden before the windows of the house, and bearing off white 

 objects in their bills : — on going to the place, my friends found 

 some of them, which on beiDg brought to me, proved to be all 

 ghost moths (Repialus humuli). A blackbird which was often 

 seen about the parlour window at a friend's country-house, was 

 fed during frost with crumbs of bread thrown beneath a tree 

 within view of the house ; others came to join in the repast, and 

 were sometimes beaten away by it, as was a missel thrush, which 

 —though its superior in size, and a bolder species — was not 

 permitted to pick up a morsel. The presumption was, that the 

 same blackbird " ruled the roast " all the time, and was bold and 

 confident from the locality being its home. Eobins may often be 

 seen driving strange birds of their own species from their " beats." 

 Birds of various kinds have not only their homes, where they act 

 like man in considering ' ' Ids house his castle/' but lay claim also 

 to the regions round about, and drive all others of the species 

 from their locality. 



