THE COMMONER BIRDS OF OUR GARDENS. 



449 



Fruits of raspberry . 



Fruits of mulberry . 

 Fruits of grape in vinery 

 Fruits of cob, filbert, and hazel nut 

 Fruits of walnut . 



Are eaten by starling and in Scotland by 

 rook. 



Are eaten by blackbird and thrush. 

 Are eaten by robin and blue tit. 

 Are eaten by nuthatch. 

 Are eaten by rook. 



Table of the Chief Insects Injurious to Vegetable Crops, and whether 



Eaten by Birds. 



Insect. Crop. Tl:e birds which destroy them. 



Wireworm Roots of corn and many Rook, starling, plover, jack- 

 other crops daw, kestrel, partridge, 

 pheasant. 



Leather- jacket (grub of Grass roots Rook, starling, 

 crane-fly) 



Cockchafer grub Roots of plants, including Rook, Royston crow, and 



strawberries gulls. 



Turnip flea beetles Young plants of turnip, None known to eat these. 



swede, and cabbage, &c. 



Caterpillar of the large Cabbages Occasionally eaten by the 



and small cabbage butter- sparrow, 

 flies 



Larvae of celery fly Between upper and lower Apparently eaten by no bird. 



surfaces of leaf of celery 



Surface caterpillars, heart Ground line of cabbages Thrush, blackbird, rooks, 



and dart and gamma and starlings. 



moths 



Black aphis Broad beans and field beans Sparrow sometimes eats it, 



very little eaten by any 

 other bird. 



Wheat midge Ears of wheat No bird known to eat it. 



Weevils Leaves of peas, beans, and Occasionally eaten by spar- 

 sometimes clover row, also by shrikes. 



Earwigs Young scarlet runner plants None known to eat them 



and dahlias except the robin. 



Methods of Modifying the Habm done by Bibds. 

 fbotection of seeds. 



Peas are less palatable to birds if soaked for a short time in paraffin. 

 I recently went over a flower farm in Somersetshire where a large 

 quantity of sweet peas are grown for Covent Garden. The grower told 

 me that for autumn-sown peas he sprinkled the seed with paraffin and 

 then scattered red lead over them, thereby giving each seed a coat of red 

 lead. This protects the seeds from mice and birds. Seeds to be sown in 

 the forest nursery are also coated with red lead ; perhaps this might be 

 applicable for cabbage and such like seeds which are badly attacked by 

 birds. Farmers, in order to protect their wheat, dress it first with copper 

 sulphate to preserve it from fungoid diseases, and often mix the seed 

 afterwards with tar to protect it from rooks and other birds. 



Both soot and lime are distasteful to birds, and aid in keeping away 

 insects, birds, and slugs from seedlings. Cotton, preferably black, is used 

 to make a guard for peas and small seeds generally by running it in parallel 

 lines, an inch apart, oyer the seedling rows, the cotton being attached at 

 either end of the row to tacks nailed on to suitably shaped boards. Gal- 

 vanized-wire netting makes a splendid protection against birds, but is 

 expensive. 



