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Some Notes on the Food of Birds. [oct., 



The long-tailed, blue, and other tits eat mussel scale on 

 apple bark, as does also the tree-creeper, but the amount eaten is 

 proportionately very small, and is not sufficient to affect the 

 pest to any extent. No bird appears to touch scale on either 

 gooseberry or currant. 



6. Have you seen any bird eating aphis on red or black cur- 

 rant, plum, damson, cherry, or apple ? 



One grower from Sussex wrote : — " My trees are usually 

 covered with aphis, but I have never seen any bird even 

 apparently eating the insects." The birds that are from time 

 to time noticed eating aphides include the tits and to a limited 

 extent the house sparrow , the house sparrow and chaffinch 

 are mentioned as having been seen eating aphis on cherry and 

 chrysanthemum ; the pied wagtail and long-tailed tit have 

 been seen eating the black aphis on black currants ; the wren 

 and hedge sparrow eat aphides on Brussels sprouts. Other 

 birds occasionally seen eating aphides include the willow and 

 golden-crested wren, the lesser whitethroat, and the starling. 



The amount of aphis eaten by birds on fruit trees and bushes 

 is economically minute, and spraying is infinitely more effective. 



7. Have you seen Woolly aphis eaten by birds ? 



This is very rarely touched by any birds ; tits, wood, and 

 willow wren appear to eat it occasionally. 



8. Have you seen any bird eating Apple Sucker ? 



No bird is definitely known to eat this most serious pest. 

 One grower has seen swallows in hundreds catching the winged 

 apple sucker as the trees were shaken by the apple pickers. 



9. What birds beside the house sparrow do you consider 

 should be reduced in number ? 



Bullfinch (mentioned in 29 replies), blackbird (27), starling 

 (17), greenfinch (14), song thrush (13), rook (11), chaffinch (10), 

 blue tit (10), wood pigeon (9), missel thrush (7), hawfinch (5), 

 jay (4), lark (3), brown linnet (2), magpie (2), dove (1), and 

 hawk (1). 



Remarks as to the Food of Birds. Summary of Replies. 



House Sparrow. — Devours corn, seeds, young pea shoots, 

 and causes damage to buds of gooseberry, red currant, and 

 damson, especially near buildings ; it picks off cherry and 

 plum blossom, and to a small extent eats cherries, red currants, 



