572 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Perse,' very double, Camellia form, deep rose ; and 1 La Fiancee,' double 

 white.— C. T. D. 



Berberis yunnanensis. By J. Hutchinson (Bot. Mag. tab. 8224). — 



Nat. ord. Berber idaceae ; tribe Bcrbercac. China. Shrub, 3-6 feet high; 

 leaves obovate, J-H inch long ; flowers solitary or in few-flowered fascicles, 

 pale yellow ; berry red. — G. H. 



Birds of California in relation to the Fruit Industry. Part I. 

 By P. E. L. Beal (U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Biolog. Survey, Bull. 30).— The 

 author gives the results of the examination of the stomach-contents of 

 a number of Californian birds, and by that means determines their 

 economic importance. To arrive at a definite conclusion with regard to 

 any species, he considers some 500 stomachs, well distributed through 

 the year, as necessary. The birds dealt with are, with the exception of 

 the tree creeper and sand martin, of species not occurring in this 

 country ; yet several of our genera and families are represented. Several 

 species of tits are examined, and are found to eat a good deal of fruit, so 

 that if numerous they would be a nuisance ; they also eat many insects, 

 particularly plant-bugs and caterpillars, with some scale-insects — the 

 worst fruit pests in that country. 



Two kinglets, allied to our goldcrest, are found to be wholly useful, 

 particularly in eating weevils and scale-insects. 



Six species of swallows or martins eat largely small wasps, plant- 

 bugs, gnats, and beetles, all harmful except a few parasitical ichneumon- 

 flies and a few ladybirds ; presumably the swallows in this country take 

 much the same food. To say that a bird feeds on insects is not sufficient 

 proof that it is useful, as is well seen in the case of the vireos, small birds 

 peculiar to America : these eat quite a number of ladybirds, which are of 

 great value in keeping down aphides. The Californian shrike eats a 

 certain number of the useful carabid beetles, but it makes up for this by 

 the large number of grasshoppers and locusts it destroys ; it also takes 

 a few small birds, generally useful, and some mice and voles. 



Their worst fruit-eater is a bird they call the linnet or house-finch, 

 related to the rose-finch which has occurred once or twice in England ; 

 yet fruit only forms 10 per cent, of its food, while weed-seed amounts to 

 86 per cent., so that it is only because it is very common that it is really 

 harmful. The russet-back thrush takes cherries and some bush-fruit, but 

 also eats a quantity of injurious insects ; the young are fed almost entirely 

 on insects. 



Two other birds, the robin (a kind of thrush) and the western 

 tanager, occasionally arrive in vast hordes on migration and commit 

 great havoc ; the robin comes in late autumn, and in one or two years 

 has eaten the olives wholesale ; nothing could be done but to pick the 

 fruit as rapidly as possible ; the tanager comes in June and attacks the 

 cherries. Fortunately this phenomenon of large flocks on migration 

 does not occur to any extent in England except with a few insectivorous 

 birds on the east coast. — C. II. H. 



Birds, The Food of British. By R. New-stead, F.R.H.S. (Jour. Bd. 

 Agr, Supplement, xv. ; Dec. 190H).— A valuable and important contri- 



