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NATURE NOTES 
Perhaps the cuckoo is entitled to first place amongst the 
insectivorous birds that are of benefit to the horticulturist. 
Unfortunately his stay in this country is of but brief duration, 
but he comes at the time when he is most needed. In the 
spring — at which period insect life begins to wake up and com- 
mence its work of destruction amongst the trees and bushes of 
garden and orchard — the cuckoo makes his appearance in our 
midst, and he and his companions, sometimes half a dozen 
together, are to be seen from morning till night amongst the 
apple and pear trees and the fruit-bushes, on the hunt for cater- 
pillars and the larvfe of the many noxious insects that lay their 
eggs on the branches and within the bark of orchard trees. 
The cuckoo is a large and hungry bird, and the number of noxious 
creatures he destroys in a single day can only be well appre- 
ciated by those who watch him at his work. Any one who has 
had an opportunity of judging the capacious appetite of a 
young cuckoo, fed by his hard-working and deluded foster- 
parents, can well understand the number of grubs and caterpillars 
necessary to appease his voracious appetite. 
It is always a difficult matter to convince the British farmer 
that any bird that flies is of use to him, or can do anything 
but Iiarm to his crops. He will tell j'ou that what he sees he 
believes, and one has again to contend with the fact that harm 
done is always more apparent than the good. One must admit 
that the rook will at times display a liking for potatoes, and 
he is not averse to a diet of newly sown wheat. Nor does he 
hesitate to strip the thatch from the ricks in the stackyard 
when the ground is frozen hard and he cannot eke out his living 
in the fields. But in a matter of this kind, where evidence on 
both sides is to be had, we must judge by comparison between 
the facts for and against the object of our discussion. We must 
give each bird that is accused of theft or mischievous behaviour 
an impartial trial, and weigh the facts in his favour against 
those sins of which he is accused, and if the former outweigh 
the latter he deserves an acquittal. 
Perhaps the farmer’s greatest scourge, at any rate so far 
as most agricultural districts are concerned, is the wireworm, 
for the destruction of which deadly ])est no efficient and prac- 
ticable remedy has j’ct been devised by man. Gas-lime is 
useful, but its use necessitates a cessation of crops on the land 
treated with it for a lengthy period, and this involves pecuniary 
loss to the farmer. Its action also rather tends to drive the pest 
down out of its reach for a time only, after which it returns as 
lively as ever; although the value of lime as a temporary 
remedy and as a manure is undoubted. But there is no wire- 
worm traj) that can eijual the gizzard of the rook. He never 
tires of the jnirsuit and may be seen day after day upon the 
same fallow, hunting for his legitimate prey. The number of 
