104 



autumn and keep on with plums, goose- 

 berries, currants and medlars, ending in 

 the late spring with black currants and 

 apples. For six months they live almost 

 entirely on fruit buds, the other six 

 months on seeds of various wild plants. 

 I find some fruit-growers still think they 

 do no mischief. My men have shot 285 

 bullfinches this winter, in the fruit plan- 

 tations. Ornithologists living in or near 

 towns often think birds do not take fruit 

 buds. The reason is that near large towns 

 the buds become so saturated with soot 

 that they are distasteful to birds. 



The Starling. 



I do not think the starling has altered 

 his food. The great increase in their 

 numbers makes it more noticeable when 

 they attack corn (which they have done 

 at times for many years back). They are 

 so numerous now that the mischief 

 they do is very marked. Cherries and 

 damsons are the fruits they attack most. 

 I believe the mild winters are responsible 

 for the great increase in their numbers. 

 They do a great amount of good as well 

 as mischief, but the number should be 

 kept within bounds. Some years back I 

 watched a pair of starlings feeding their 

 young. It was a warm, damp day, and 

 one of the old birds kept appearing with 

 two or three grubs. The young ones were 

 just getting a few feathers, and were old 

 enough to put their heads out of the open- 

 ing to be fed. I wondered how the old 

 birds knew which one to feed, so I went 

 to the nest, which was in a box with a 

 lid (placed for the purpose) in an out- 

 building. Opening the lid, I was able to 

 observe the process. Each bird, when he 

 had receiv.jd his food, went to the back 

 of the nest, and came round in rotation to 

 the front. One bird a little larger than 

 the others, and evidently a bully, pushed 

 the others aside and came forward out of 

 turn. The old bird, returning with two 

 fat grubs and a worm, was going to push 

 them down his throat, when she dis- 

 covered his little game. She threw her 

 head back, swallowed the food herself, 

 and stepping into the nest took the young 

 bird by the wing, gave him a violent shak- 

 ing so that he fairly screamed, and then 

 pushed him right to the back of the 

 nest. 



Blue Tit and Cole Tit. 

 I am sorry to see the indictment against 

 the blue tit; he is such a jolly little bird 

 and so audacious. He does some mischief 

 in the autumn by pecking apples and 

 pears, but all the rest of the year he is 

 looking for small insects and their eggs, 

 and at present I shall not sign his death 

 warrant. The cole tit is much more mis- 

 chievous, he destroys the buds of black 

 currants in the spring when they are 

 opening. He throws off the leaves by a 

 right and left jerk of the head, and eats 

 the embryo bunch of currants. I have 

 always found him worse than the blue tit 

 at the apples and pears. For several 

 years now I have saved my fruit in the 

 garden from their depredations by plant- 

 ing sun-flowers. If there is enough sun- 

 flower seed they will not touch fruit. The 

 tits frequently peck the bunches of pear 

 and apple blossom buds just before they 

 open and in all cases I have examined 

 they contained the larvae of some insect. 



Great Tit or Ox Eye. 



The great tit occasionally takes a few 

 plum buds in early spring, but I think 

 the balance for good is in favour of the 

 tits, and although they have very large 

 families, they do not seem to grow more 

 plentiful. I have known the great tit 

 bring out 15 young. 



Black Cap. 



A family of black caps in a cherry 

 orchard commit great havoc. They do 

 not eat a quarter of the fruit they pick. 

 They are also very fond of raspberries, 

 and, as for figs, they will consume enor- 

 mous quantities. The fig acts on them like 

 Glauber salts, and they keep eating all 

 day. It is the worst summer bird we have 

 in the fruit plantations, and I think the 

 only one of our summer visitors that does 

 much mischief. 



Jay. 



In the neighbourhood of game preserves 

 the jay sometimes does much damage to 

 the apple crops by taking a bite out of 

 any rosy-faced apple that looks tempting, 

 spoiling very many, without consuming 

 any great quantity. He is also a great 

 nut-cracker, taking the point of the nut 

 off as you would with a knife, inserting 

 his beak, and opening the nut. He is 



