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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. F. V. Theobald tells me that of twelve blackbirds recently 

 examined, the contents of the stomachs showed vegetable pulp, seeds of 

 raspberries, strawberries, also cabbages, yew, and insects. 



Chaffinch : Fringilla coelebs. 



This, sprightly and handsome bird is generally distributed throughout 

 the cultivated and wooded portions of the British Islands. 



The nest is particularly beautifully constructed, and is said to be made 

 by the female, the male bringing the material. 



The eggs are from four to six, and there are two broods. Large 

 numbers of chaffinches arrive in autumn on the East Coast, coming 

 apparently from Norway and Sweden. 



The chaffinch associates with the sparrow and greenfinch in the 

 stubbles and farmyard, feeding on corn and other seeds. 



In the gardens and the forest nursery it is often very tiresome in 

 picking up seeds and seedlings, and needs to be scared by shot from a 

 long distance ; the seeds of peas may be protected by cotton or ether 

 means. In company with the sparrow it eats the buds of gooseberries 

 red currants, and plums. To the credit of the chaffinch it is due to say 

 it eats many caterpillars. 



Greenfinch or Green Linnet : Ligurinus chloris. 



This sturdily built bird with its strong bill is common everywhere ; 

 it is somewhat shy in summer ; in autumn and winter they travel in 

 large flocks, and are frequently seen with sparrows and chaffinches in 

 fields and farmyards. 



Their food consists of seeds, including wild mustard, pink persicaria, 

 grain, and insects, feeding their young largely on caterpillars. 



In habits they are very similar to chaffinches except that they them- 

 selves eat very few insects, and are if anything more destructive to garden 

 seeds and sprouting crops : they are great weed-seed eaters, but they 

 distribute them as well. They attack plum, pear, and gooseberry buds, 

 and are a terrible pest among hops, picking the cones to pieces for seeds ; 

 they eat turnip, cabbage, and radish seeds, also ripe corn. A Sittingbourne 

 grower wrote me that they eat the seeds off strawberries when ripe. 



Rook : Corvus frugilegus. 



This bird does not often enter small gardens, but in large gardens 

 and on farms attacks both the newly planted potatos and those that are 

 maturing. On a farm they often do serious damage to newly planted 

 corn, beans, peas, and to the seedlings of the same, and it is absolutely 

 necessary to scare them with the rifle or gun. 



On grass land and on newly ploughed land they do valuable service in 

 eating wireworms, leather-jackets, cockchafer, and other grubs and cater- 

 pillars, but in most districts they are too numerous, and they ought to be 

 thinned at nesting time. Careful observations of the food of the rook 

 have been made throughout the year in different parts of Scotland and 

 published in the Journal of the Highland Agricultural Society and in a 

 pamphlet entitled "The Rook as an Enemy to Sport and Agriculture." 



