NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS 
straight through a held of eared corn, strip the ears of all in 
convenient reach, peck a few grains and pass beyond to the 
next.” — P. J. Birtwell. 
Canada goose injuring wheat 
“Anser canadensis is fond of young wheat in irrigated 
fields.”— P. J. Birtwell. 
Long=crested jay and Woodhouse’s jay eating corn 
Mr. Birtwell saw 7 these birds (Gyanocitta stelleri macrolopha 
and Aphelocoma Woodhousei) eating corn from horse feed. 
House finch eating fruit buds 
“This bird is exceedingly destructive to fruit orchards 
from the time of early budding to young fruit. I have 
watched dozens of these birds greedily devouring the sta¬ 
mens of apple blosoms, and birds shot while thus engaged 
have been found with the oesophagus crammed with fila¬ 
ments and anthers.” — F. J. Birtwell. 
The House finch (Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis) is the 
common little bird which nests under the eaves of houses in 
all our towns. It has been considered harmless, but Mr. 
BirtwelTs observations will tend to take awmy its good char¬ 
acter. It may be, however, that a reasonable destruction of 
flowers is beneficial, preventing overloading with fruit and 
doing away to some extent with the necessity of thinning 
out. 
The English sparrow has recently found its way into New 
Mexico, and occurs at Raton and Las Vegas. It might be 
expected to supplant and drive out the house finch; but in 
Las Vegas, at any rate, the house finch is still abundant. 
For an account of the English sparrow, see Bulletin 1, Di¬ 
vision of Ornithology, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
Injury to fruit at Santa Fe 
Mr. Arthur Boyle writes as follows concerning his ex¬ 
perience of the last twenty years at Santa Pe: 
“The worst birds amongst the cherries are the ‘redpoll' 
and a bright colored green and yellow bird the name of which 
