6/0 Birds and Fruit Growers. [Feb., 



farm before the middle of December, and they were much more 

 numerous at a distance from the homestead than near it, for 

 which reason the early attack in the latter situation is attributed 

 mainly, if not entirely, to the sparrows. Mr. Hooper states 

 that the worst time of bud-eating is the beginning of March, 

 and with respect to plums it has been found so in my experi- 

 ence. It is important, however, to inspect plantations daily, or 

 nearly every day, after the middle of December, in order to be 

 able to spray at once on noticing the starting of an attack. 



Both Mr. Hooper and also Mr. Smith, in a paper read before 

 the Maidstone Farmers' Club, mention apples as subject to dis- 

 budding by birds, and the latter includes black currants ; but in 

 my own plantations no evidence of either attack has been 

 noticed. That cherries and pears are attacked there is no doubt, 

 although my few cherry and pear trees, if disbudded at all, have 

 never been sufficiently damaged to prevent profuse blossoming. 

 Some standard peaches and nectarines, grown in the open by 

 way of experiment, however, were disbudded badly last winter 

 for the first time. 



Turning to fruit-eating birds, there is no need for hesitation 

 in declaring the blackbird to be the worst offender. This bird is 

 omnivorous in respect of fruit, while it is very numerous, and 

 also one of the slyest of birds. If scared off a field, it simply 

 retires to a sheltering hedge until the scarer has passed by, and 

 is soon out again at its work of depredation. The starling is as 

 bad for cherries, and the thrush for all soft fruits ; but both are 

 more easy to shoot than the blackbird is, and can present more 

 mitigating merits as destroyers of noxious insects and grubs. 

 Neither trouble me in apple plantations, and the starling is not 

 conspicuous, if present at all, among the numerous varieties of 

 birds that attack my black currants. But both thrushes and 

 starlings have become far too numerous in most parts of Eng- 

 land, or at any rate in the southern half of the country, and 

 need to be thinned, distressful though it is to kill either, and par- 

 ticularly the starling, a very valuable bird when' fruit is not ripe. 

 In consequence of the great numbers of blackbirds and thrushes, 

 it is a common experience to be compelled to net every currant 

 and gooseberry bush in a garden, if any ripe fruit is to be ob- 

 tained, and in many cases strawberry beds and raspberry canes 



