18 Wild Birds, Useful and Injurious. • 
of it is illegal, for though the legislation in favoui’ of birds is for 
the most part satisfactory, the means for enforcing it are utterly 
inadequate, and it is to be feared that it has little effect in the 
more remote parts of the country. Thus I was recently informed 
that three separate parties, armed with inspes, and intent on 
robbery, arrived simultaneously at the eyrie of a pair of birds, 
whose eggs were under the protection of the local County 
Council ; and in another district, where a few pairs of goldfinches 
still nest, the young are always taken, the regulations in their 
favour being entirely disregarded. 
As a further comment on the Act it may be stated that, 
whilst the measures taken to protect rare and diminishing 
species cannot possibly be too stringent, legislation in favour of 
many common birds, and especially those which are increasing 
in numbers, is entirely unnecessary and in some cases undesir- 
able. 
The following additions and corrections to the previous 
papers may be noted here : — 
Kestrel. — Hawks, owls, and many other birds eject the 
indigestible portion of their food in the form of pellets or 
castings (see Part I.). Some hundreds of these castings, 
examined by me, were composed as usual almost exclusively 
of the remains of mice and beetles, but I was surprised to find 
in some, picked up in North Yorkshire, the fragments of 
several earwigs. It would, probably, be a difficult matter to 
convince the average gamekeeper of the truth of this 
statement. 
Barn Owl. — In a casting of this bird I found the bones of 
a frog. 
Blackbird. — The berries mentioned in Part I. as being those 
of the dogwood, were the fruit of the spineless buckthorn. 
From several notes recently published in The Zoologist, it 
appears that blackbirds, unlike thrushes, do not commonly 
feed on shell snails. I have found the remains of an earwig 
in a bird of this species. 
Song Thrush. — The destruction of wire-worms may be 
placed to its credit. 
Blue Tit. — In Part II. it was suggested that the blue tit 
destroys the buds of trees in its search for the eggs or tiny 
grubs of insects. This may often be the case, but I am afraid 
it must be admitted that the buds themselves are sometimes 
the attraction. On the other hand, scale insects and nut 
weevils may be added to the list of pests which it destroys, 
and it also eats the seed of such weeds as horseknop. 
Chaffinch. — An interesting instance was brought to my 
notice of a large fiock of chaffinches catching quantities of 
the destructive diamond-back moths on the wing. 
