PREFACE. 
V 
the Blue Tit may be specially observed at work among the 
Aphides on Gooseberry bushes); also the Warblers, Woodpeckers, 
Nuthatch, and Tree Creepers. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 
is noted as specially frequenting the Apple ; the Golden-crested 
Begulus frequents the Scotch pines, Spruce, and other Coniferae; 
the Bearded Tit, Yellow Wagtail, Titlark, Wren, Cuckoo, and 
Water Bail are mentioned as serviceable in Osier beds and reeds 
and marsh hay. Among the Gooseberry, Currant, and Basp- 
berry bushes the Titmice and Warblers, the Wren, and the 
Cuckoo are noticed as of special use. Among Cabbage and 
Turnip crops the Partridge, Spotted Flycatcher, Swifts, Swallows, 
and Martins are serviceable. On grass, besides the Warblers, 
Swallows, Swifts, Martins, and Partridges before mentioned, the 
Wagtails, Pipits, and Starlings, are all of use. The Cuckoo is 
of special service from not refusing hairy larvae, and the Fly¬ 
catcher as destroying the White Butterflies. 
But with regard to the one item of Sparrows, its special 
habits make this bird an exception to what we may fairly call our 
regular feathered friends, and in confirmation of the observations 
given in this Beport, both as to their driving away other birds 
and their corn- and seed-feeding propensities, it may be well to 
draw attention to the observations of Mr. B. Lowe, of Sleaford, 
printed in my Beport for 1888, including a year’s observation of 
their food from examination of their contents and also of their 
habits, and likewise the opinion of Mr. J. A. Lintner, State 
Entomologist of New York State, U.S.A., who, while he presses 
the importance of preserving insectivorous birds in his First Beport, 
p. 61, further mentions, amongst remedies for insect-presence, 
“levying a war of extermination on that unmitigated nuisance, 
the English Sparrow.” To this bird Prof. J. A. Lintner ascribes 
the increase of various caterpillars, and it is not enough thought 
of with us (though it is very plainly to be seen) how much this 
audacious robber drives away the Martins, which, like it, frequent 
our homesteads, but which are exceedingly helpful in destroying 
over-amount of insects. 
The following note is also well worth the attention of those 
concerned, which is contributed by Mr. A. Molineux, Member of 
the Committee of Agriculture of the Boyal Agricultural and 
Horticultural Society of South Australia :— 
“ I have been writing lately on the Sparrow question, and also 
on the injury to Australian cultivators done by imported pests. 
