105 



very fond of green peas, and plums do 

 not come amiss to him. Where fruit is 

 grown he should be kept down. 



Chaffinch. 



The chaffinch is not generally considered 

 .a bad bird, but he is a great disbudder of 

 fruit, gooseberries, currants, and plums, 

 especially after a frost, when these birds 

 will be found in twos and threes all over 

 the plantation, eating the buds. They are 

 responsible for much of the damage done 

 to plums, cherries, gooseberries, and cur- 

 rants, by squeezing the blossom to ex- 

 tract the honey in it ; while they are also 

 very fond of lady-birds and their larvae, 

 clearing off large quantities of these use- 

 ful insects. They are partially migratory, 

 coming from the north in large quantities 

 in the end of October or beginning of 

 November. This winter has been so mild 

 that they have not come south. 



Green Linnet. 



I do not know that I ought to include 

 the green linnet. He does not eat fruit, 

 although he takes a few buds and pinches 

 some blooms. But he is a terror in the 

 hop-gardens when the hop-seed is ripen- 

 ing, pulling the hops to pieces to get the 

 ■seed and doing so much damage that he 

 ought to be kept down to some extent in 

 this country. 



The Barn Owl. 



I must say a word for our friend the 

 owl. I am sorry to see he will soon be a 

 rare bird unless something can be done 

 to save him. There is a general idea 

 among keepers that the owl is a destroyer 

 ■of game, but I do not think he deserves 

 that character; he lives chiefly on mice, 

 rats, beetles, and moles. I once gave a 

 tame owl eleven mice; the last one cer- 

 tainly stuck out of his mouth for some 

 time but by jumping vigorously, with his 

 head pointing straight upward, the bird 

 succeeded in getting it down ! The owl 

 is very inquisitive, and that sometimes 

 leads to his destruction. I was once wait- 

 ing on an ash plantation to get a shot at 

 a rabbit in the dark, when an owl came 

 round me several times ; finally, it settled 

 a few feet in front of me, and, after bow- 

 ing in its grotesque way several times, flew 

 straight at my face, settled on the top of 

 my head, remained there a few seconds. 



and then swooped round a few times and 

 passed on his way. If preservers of game 

 would have the owl protected they would 

 be doing a good service to the country 

 generally. Unfortunately, the owl has a 

 money value to preservers of skins for 

 screens, etc. 



The Kestrel and the Sparrowhawk. 



The kestrel should be reckoned with the 

 owl as one of our best friends, living on 

 young rats, mice, black beetles, grass- 

 hoppers and some small birds. Like the 

 owl, he will soon be exterminated if 

 something is not done to preserve him 

 from the gamekeeper. The sparrowhawk 

 is too fond of game and poultry to be pro- 

 tected. 



DAMAaB BY Birds. 



The amount of fruit consumed and 

 spoilt by birds is enormous. A few years 

 back I left an estimated quantity of 300 

 tons of damsons. In about three weeks 

 they were all cleared off by the black- 

 birds, thrushes, missel birds and star- 

 lings. I do not say they ate 300 tons, 

 because the fruit shrivelled, and, be- 

 sides, the stones would represent a large 

 item ; but then other growers left very 

 large quantities, and they were eaten in 

 the same way. I think many birds have 

 a keen sense of smell, and come from long 

 distances to where food is to be had. A 

 few years back I sowed a field with tares. 

 There had been no green linnets seen on 

 the farm for weeks, but then they began 

 to arrive in little parties of five to nine, 

 and before dark the field was swarming 

 with them. They must have smelt the 

 seed. 



I think much harm is done by the birds 

 destroying ladybirds and their larvse, the 

 lacewing fly, the ichneumon fly, etc. In 

 bicycling in Normandy, Brittany and 

 Touraine I was much struck by the 

 absence of birds. There were no thrushes, 

 blackbirds, sparrows, etc. In a circle 

 of 500 miles through the country I 

 did not see any crop damaged by insect 

 pes'ts, except the small ermine moth in 

 the apple trees, and birds ■will not eat 

 this in any case. There were plenty of 

 buzzards, harriers, the smaller hawks, 

 and the little owls. Magpies were the 

 most numerous. It is just the same In 



