144 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
arranging the point of attack on the grubs or insects in some other part of 
the park. This bird is one of our greatest benefactors in destroying grubs, 
beetles, and wireworms, and never preys upon any fruits or seeds. 
As for the blackbirds and thrushes, I am of opinion, that for all that 
are shot or trapped in their predatory attacks on fruit, their numbers are 
not so diminished as to cause any alarm to sentimental poetasters or bird- 
philanthropists. When,the number of hawks and other birds of prey was 
considerable, Nature meant them to be a check on the small birds. Now this 
balance is disturbed, for gamekeepers have killed or thinned these birds 
so much that a sparrow-hawk, merlin, kite, or buzzard is hardly ever seen. 
The greatest pest of all small birds is the sparrow, for he is a born thief, 
and with his impudence and daring will make his way, and increase, in 
spite of all the sparrow-clubs in the kingdom. The sparrows are, in 
general, so secure in the holes and crannies they select in buildings and 
trees, that they escape better than many other little birds with their eggs 
and young. As “ W. P.” is anxious to save the fruit-eating birds, such as 
blackbirds and thrushes, from being destroyed, let me recommend him a 
plan I have tried for the last two or three years, and which answers better 
than setting on boys or lads as herds, for they generally eat more fruit 
than the birds. I have a terrier dog of the name of “ Billy ” trained to 
scamper up and down the rows of Currants and Gooseberries, and find he 
takes the greatest interest in his work, by scaring all the birds off the 
bushes, making short work too with all that he finds in the nets. I have 
only to say as “ Tennyson ” said to “ Maud,”— 
“ Come into the garden ‘ Bill,’ 
For the blackbirds and thrushes are there : 
And pegging at fruit with such a will, 
That the bushes will soon be bare,” 
And “ Billy ” will be sure to keep them off as long as he is on duty. 
Welbeck. William Tillery. 
PROPERTIES OF VARIEGATED ZONAL PELARGONIUMS. 
We have already briefly stated our reason for adopting the designation 
Variegated Zonal, instead of Tricolor, for the varieties with beautiful parti¬ 
coloured leaves, which are now becoming so fashionable—namely that the 
word “tricolor” is both preoccupied and inexact. The suggested designa¬ 
tions of Versicolor and Tartan are also certainly less definite than that of 
Variegated Zonal, which at once expresses the fact that the leaves are truly 
variegated with a zone superadded, the variegation being due to a diseased 
or altered condition of the substance of the leaf, and indicating either a 
suppression or modification of the chlorophyll, to which the colour of a 
healthy green leaf is attributable, and the coloration indicated by the zone 
being due to another cause altogether—namely, the presence of erytlirophjdl 
in the tissues of the leaf. 
The vast number of new varieties of these Variegated Zonals springing 
up in all directions, renders it urgent that a code of “ properties ” should 
be adopted, by means of which those sorts that approach the nearest to 
ideal perfection may obtain the prominence which they merit; to meet this 
necessity we have elsewhere proposed such a code, which we here reproduce. 
The knowledge we already possess that some beautiful varieties of this 
group are delicate in constitution and slow in development, indicates the 
