29 



119. ? Sex ; Halton, Cheshire ; 4th September, 1901. — 

 Stomach half filled with pear fruit ; many aphids ; 39 mussel 

 scales (Mytilaspis pomorum) ; many small Hymenoptera 

 (Proctotrypidse) ; 1 weevil (Otiorrhynchidae). (Shot while 

 destroying pears.) 



120. Immature; Halton, Cheshire; 4th September, 1901. — 

 Chiefly pear fruit ; many plant lice ; fragments of 1 spider ; 

 numerous fragments of small Hymenopterous insects ; frag- 

 ments of 1 earwig. (Shot while destroying pears.) 



121. ? Sex; Halton, Cheshire; 4th September, 1901.— 

 Stomach half filled with pear fruit ; over 500 wings and other 

 remains of plant lice and American blight (Lachnus sp., 

 Schizoneura lanigera). (Shot while destroying pears.) 



122. ? Sex; Halton, Cheshire; 4th September, 1901. — 

 Stomach half filled with pear fruit ; 55 mussel scales (M* 

 pomorum) ; traces of spiders' webs or other fibrous matter. 

 (Shot while destroying pears.) 



Summary— 31 contained insects of the injurious group ; 3, 

 beneficial group ; 7, indifferent group ; 3, spiders ; 10, wheat ; 

 4, maize ; 5, pear ; 3, apple rind ; n, bud scales ; 2, vegetable 

 matter, undetermined ; 4, fungus. 



Field Notes. — 123. Fruit. — In many localities in Cheshire 

 and Norfolk this bird shows a great fondness for ripe pears, * 

 which it destroys by pecking holes in them, usually in the region 

 of the fruit-stalk. This pernicious habit, so far at least as my 

 experience goes, is most marked where the fruit trees are grown 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of woods and copses, though 

 isolated orchards are by no means exempt. 



124. Fruit Buds. — A single instance of the wanton destruction 

 of the dormant fruit buds of both the apple and pear occurred 

 in a large garden in Cheshire a few years ago ; from 50 to 75 

 per cent, of the buds being destroyed on some of the trees. 

 A most careful examination was made, but I failed to find 

 traces of insects of any kind either in the buds which were 

 left or in those which had been paitly destroyed by the 

 birds. I saw the birds engaged in their work of destruction, 

 but, unfortunately, was prevented from securing examples for 

 dissection, so that it is impossible to say whether they had 



* This pernicious habit is, I believe, quite general. 



