NATURE NOTES 
1 88 
be divided into three classes — firstly, those that are granivorous ; 
secondly, those that chiefly subsist on a diet of flesh or insects ; 
and thirdly, those that are both granivorous and insectivorous 
or carnivorous. Although, strictly speaking, we cannot describe 
birds whose diet, in addition to grain and seeds, consists of 
vegetable substances as being granivorous, we can, for the 
sake of simplicity, class them under one head for the time being. 
With each of the classes the gardener and the agriculturist 
have in some measure to reckon, and it will be unnecessary 
to notice any but those species which are the most common 
and abundant, since varieties of rare or occasional occurrence 
only affect the horticulturist to an infinitesimal degree as con- 
cerns his welfare or his detriment. 
The most prominent members of the first class are the finches 
— the bullfinch, the goldfinch, the chaffinch, greenfinch and 
linnet being the best known of all. Few gardeners can be found 
to say a good word for any of them, and one feels bound to 
admit that it is chiefly for the reason mentioned above, namely, 
that while the harm is often apparent, the good they do it is 
impossible to estimate. We cannot deny that certain of the birds 
have a partiality for the buds of gooseberries and currants 
and the seeds of certain choice garden plants, and one can 
well sympathise wdth the aggrieved gardener when he sustains 
loss by reason of a visit of the finch tribe to his beloved sanc- 
tuary. Yet a hasty condemnation of the finches would be as 
ridiculous as it is unjust. The season when buds are attacked 
by the birds is only a limited one, and the same may be said 
of the period during which choice seeds are procurable. Upon 
what, then, do the birds subsist when these two articles of diet 
are not to be had ? Obviously, they must be living on the 
seeds of weeds, thus directly employing their time to the benefit 
of the gardener or the farmer. In some seasons, indeed, they pay 
no visits to the fruit-bushes at all, occupying their whole time 
in devouring the seeds of thistle, plantain, dandelion, groundsel, 
and many other weeds, all of which are a source of vexation 
and trouble to mankind. But no gardener or farmer is able 
to estimate the number of seeds of undesirable plants that are 
thus destroyed, and he probably gives no thought at all to the 
matter. Nor does he often seek to enquire as to other causes 
for the shortness of his currant or gooseberry crop. The birds 
are the scapegoats, and should he see but one pair of finches 
during the whole season in his currant bed, he will often only 
too readily lay the charge of an unsuccessful croj) at their door, 
forgetting the late spring frosts, the blight, the caterpillars 
and the injurious insects that may, for all he knows, be really 
responsible lor the failure of his crops. 
The common sparrow, though coming in tlie Passerine 
group, togetlier with the finches, so adapts himself to existing 
