THE COMMONER BIRDS OF OUR GARDENS. 



427 



THE COMMONER BIRDS OF OUR GARDENS: 

 THEIR HABITS AND FOODS. . 



By Cecil H. Hoopee, M.R.A.C., of the South Eastern Agricultural 



College, Wye. 



Lecture given October 28, 1907. 



I peopose to give a brief description of the more striking characteristics 

 from a natural history point of view of the birds most commonly met 

 with, and to endeavour, together with a deep love of birds, to consider in 

 fairness their economic aspect as regards the garden. I do not pretend that 

 all the information is original, or even most of it. I have studied many 

 books to obtain information, including the excellent works of W. Yarrell, 

 Professor A. Newton, Granville Sharpe, Howard Saunders and John Gould ; 

 also the Catalogue of English Birds in the Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington, prepared by W. R. Ogilvie- Grant, from all of which I 

 have in different parts quoted. I have consulted many gardeners and 

 farmers ; I have endeavoured during most of my life to observe our native 

 birds, and more recently to verify what I have read about them. I have 

 constructed several tables with the assistance of Mr. F. V. Theobald to 

 show the relation of birds to insect and other pests : these appear towards 

 the end of the Paper. 



Some may think I do not give due credit to the birds for the good 

 they do ; while others may consider I do not sufficiently emphasise in 

 some cases the injury done. 



At the end of my Paper I mention a few methods of modifying harm 

 done by birds. 



I have endeavoured to arrange the birds in order of the relative 

 numbers of them that we see, and have consulted several of my friends to 

 get their opinions. 



House Spaeeow : Passer domesticus. 



Starting with the ubiquitous house sparrow, I take its good points 

 first. It eats and feeds its young with a certain number of cater- 

 pillars, including those of the cabbage butterfly, some aphides on beans, 

 roses, and plums, and some weed seeds, including those of chickweed ; but 

 its food consists mainly of grain, on which its young are fed at a very 

 early age, taking heavy toll from the farmer and poultry keeper. To the 

 fruit grower the sparrow's chief sin is the terrible quantity of buds of 

 gooseberries, red-currants, and plums it destroys during winter time. The 

 hop grower finds it eats his best insect friend, the larva of the lady-bird ; 

 and the gardener is disheartened by the destruction of seed and seedlings 

 of turnip, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, &c, and the damage it does to crocuses 

 and some other flowers. 



Philip Sparrow rears a large family — two or three batches of five or 

 six eggs, laid in a hastily made untidy nest of hay and feathers. 



