6 54 
Our Animal Enemies 
[November, 
his winter-retreats — cannot be encouraged where poultry 
or game are being reared. The same objection applies to 
the carrion crow, the raven, and to certain hawks. The 
larger owls are probably his best and most trustworthy 
opponents, and should from a variety of grounds be pre- 
served and encouraged. Much might be done towards the 
extirpation of the squirrel by careful search during the 
winter in the hollows of trees. How is it that no one has 
yet devised a squirrel-trap ? 
Passing from Mammalia to birds, we are sorry to find that 
not a few are far from improving on a closer acquaintance. 
The number of purely zoophagous species which do not 
admit more or less vegetable matter — seeds, fruits. &c. — 
into their dietary is not large. We may even ask whether 
among those birds which remain with us throughout the year 
there are, save the birds of prey, commonly so called, any 
purely zoophagous forms ? In a severe winter the supply of 
inserts, worms, slugs, &c., is often interrupted for so long a 
time that a bird incapable of digesting seeds, berries, &c., 
would be in great peril of starvation. 
Among the more useful wild birds the starling has long 
held high rank as a vermin-destroyer. The German farmers 
from time immemorial have been in the habit of fixing 
up small boxes in their orchards, in which this bird may 
build its nest, secure from cats, hawks, owls, &c. We 
have often heard the opinion expressed, by intelligent and 
observant men, that the protection thus afforded to the 
starling was well remunerated. Nevertheless everyone must 
have seen this bird feasting upon the red currants in our 
gardens, and have heard it protest with angry screams when 
the fruit is being gathered and carried away. 
The jay, as a member of the same group, the Corvidae, by 
repute zoophagous, is for the most part denounced — mainly 
by game-preservers — as a suspeCted destroyer of the eggs of 
pheasants and partridges, and defended by lovers of birds 
as an eradicator of caterpillars and other noxious inseCI- 
larvae. It may be, however, that his main disservices to 
man are to be witnessed in the orchard and the kitchen- 
garden rather than in the game-preserve. The skill with 
which he extracts peas and beans from the pod, leaving it 
apparently intaCf until it collapses on handling, is worth 
notice. The scarlet-runner and the kidney bean do not seem 
to meet his taste at any stage of their growth. Gooseberries 
the bird attacks in a similar style, making a small opening 
with the point of his beak, sucking out the pulp, and leaving 
the empty skin hanging. The jay is decidedly a neat feeder. 
