1907.] Some Notes on the Food of Birds. 



409 



Wren. — This bird is insectivorous and is reported as wholly 

 beneficial. 



Willow wren. — This bird being insectivorous is one of the 

 gardeners' best friends, and is often found in numbers in 

 orchards and gardens. The smaller willow wren and the wood 

 wren have often been seen feeding on aphis. 



Golden Crested Wren. — Devours scale insects readily. 



Hedge Sparrow. — This bird is also insectivorous and wholly 

 beneficial. 



Cuckoo. — One correspondent suggests that this bird should 

 not be protected, as it lays its eggs in the nests of birds which 

 are mainly insect feeders and destroys their young. On the 

 other hand, it is stated that the young in all cases are fed on 

 caterpillars, and that the food of the adult is mainly flying 

 insects, hairy caterpillars, caterpillars of ermine moth and 

 woolly bear. One writer says he saw cuckoos eating gooseberry 

 sawfly larvae. 



Tree creeper. — This is harmless and a good insect destroyer, 



Nuthatch. — This bird takes cob nuts and filberts, but is 

 otherwise harmless and a good insect destroyer. 



Spotted flycatcher. — The reports on this bird are all favourable. 

 It is mentioned as destroying aphides and the gooseberry sawfly. 



Pied wagtail. — This is reported as insectivorous. 



Woodpecker. — One observer reports on 24th April that the 

 lesser spotted woodpecker was seen on the trunk of an old 

 Pyrus spectabilis which was honeycombed by clearwing moth 

 caterpillar. It is also believed to take the Xyleborus despar 

 beetles from the branches of plum trees. 



Goat-Sucker. — This is stated to eat moths and to be very useful. 



Martins, Swallows, and Swifts. — These are reported as devour- 

 ing moths, aphides and other insects. 



The Plover. — With regard to the plover, one writer states that 

 he has " reason to believe that the green plover feeds upon the 

 small black slug which infests strawberry plants. The exten- 

 sive strawberry fields in some parts of Herefordshire are 

 frequented during autumn and winter by flocks of peewits, 

 which are encouraged and never disturbed." 



Kestrel and Barn Owl. — One correspondent says : — " I am 

 sorry to say the kestrel is rapidly disappearing. I have 

 observed him for sixty years and rarely indeed has he been 



