Supplement  to 
Miucii  10,  19C4.-  JOUliA'AL  CF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Biitisb  Bivbs. 
By  George  Abbey. 
SHE  birds  that  inhabit  the  British  islands,  their  waters  and 
lands,  play  an  important  part  in  pisciculture,  arbori¬ 
culture,  agriculture,  and  horticulture,  therefore  a  few 
remarks  on  their  respective  proclivities  may  be  useful  to 
those  uninitiated  in  the  general  habits  of  the  respective 
species,  and  principally  as  regards  the  nature  of  their 
food,  upon  which  their  helpfulness  or  otherwise  in  the  several 
cultures  mainly,  if  not  wholly,  depends. 
With  the  birds  it  is  solely  a  question  of  food,  and  with  man 
and  his  cultures  it  is  absolutely  a  matter  of  crops — fish,  trees 
or  timber,  grain,  fodder,  roots,  beef,  mutton,  pork  or  bacon, 
milk,  butter,  cheese,  fowls  and  eggs,  plants,  flowers,  fruits,  and 
vegetables.  The  food  of  many  birds  is  wholly  composed  of 
insects,  that  is  they  are  insectivorous.  Some  birds  live  partl.v  on 
insects  or  invertebrate  creatures,  and  partly  upon  vegetation, 
that  is  they  are  omnivorous.  Other  birds  subsist  almost 
exclusively  upon  vegetation — the  plant,  the  .seed  of  wild  or  cul¬ 
tivated  crops,  that  is  the.v  are  herbivorous.  Other  birds,  again, 
feed  entirely  upon  flesh,  it  may  bo  that  of  enemies  of  crops,  or 
even  on  cultivated  subjects,  that  is,  they  are  carnivorous 
(rapt  ores). 
Against  the  insectivorous  birds  “  no  stone  can  be  thrown,” 
for  they  are  unquestionably  paramount  as  preserving  a  balance 
between  vegetation  on  the  one  hand  and  insect  ravages  on  the 
other  hand;  indeed,  it  is  questionable  if  vegetation  could  exist 
without  them  other  than  in  very  restricted  cultures  and  by  an 
enormous  ontla,y  in  insecticides. 
For  the  omnivorous  birds  much  may  be  advanced  in  their 
favour  from  their  feeding  largel.y  upon  weeds  and  weed  seeds,  as 
well  as  consuming  an  untold  number  of  pests,  commonly  called 
insects,  that  otherwise  prey  on  useful  crops.  Indeed,  only  a 
just  estimate  can  be  formed  by  counterbalancing  the  injury  they 
commit  against  the  good  they  do,  not  in  respect  of  any  (larticular 
culture,  but  in  regard  of  the  whole  of  cultivated  crops. 
The  herbivorous  birds  are  like  herbivorous  animals,  wholly 
antagonistic  to  vegetable  cultures,  and  happily  there  are  few 
species  that  come  in  this  category. 
Carnivorous  birds  are  very  tantalising.  To  the  forester  and 
gardener  they  are  the  “  pink  of  perfection,”  for  they  prey  upon 
the  worst  enemies  of  his  crops.  To  the  farmer  the  birds  of  prey 
are  both  abetting  and  depredatory,  for  they  pounce  alike  on 
game  as  upon  poultry.  To  the  pisciculturist  the  fishing  birds  are 
equally  tantalising,  inasmuch  as  they  make  no  distinction 
between  cultured  and  uncultured  water,  between  foes  and 
friends. 
In  a  brief  digest  of  birds  of  the  British  islands,  regard  will 
be  mainly  concentrated  on  their  food,  and  this  is  really  the  crux 
of  the  bird  ({Uestion,  for  the  stomach  rules  the  world,  especially 
in  that  of  aves  or  birds,  for  in  order  to  live  they  must  ft'ed,  and 
their  food  is  had  at  either  or  both  the  cultivator’s  advantage 
or  prcjudic('.  Food,  therefore,  affords  the  soundest  basis  on 
which  to  estimate  the  merit  or  demerit  of  birds  from  a  cultural 
standpoint,  hence  they  will  be  referred  to  mainly  as  affecting 
gardens  and  pleasure  grounds,  fruit  plantations  and  orchards, 
yet  not  regardless  of  their  inflinnice  for  good  or  evil  in  the  fields, 
woodlands,  coniinons,  and  waters. 
For  convenience 't  h<‘  different  species  will  be  collated  under 
the  headings  :  Resident,  or  those  birds  that  inhabit  the  British 
islands  throughout  the  year.  Migratory,  or  those  birds  that 
visit  this  country  at  certain  times  of  season  either  for  hreeding 
or  feeding  purpose. 
Resident. 
Insectivorous  or  Harmless. 
The  Hedge  Accentok  or  Hedge  Scarrow  (Aecentor  inodu- 
laris)  is  one  of  the  commonest  British  birds,  somewhat  resembling 
the  common  or  house  sparrow.  The  nest  is  built  in  hedges  and 
thickets,  and  contains  five  bine  eggs,  the  nest  being  commonly 
seheted  by  the  cuckoo  for  depositing  an  egg,  the  young  from 
which  ousts  the  fledgeless  hedge  sparrows,  and  is  itself  fed  by 
the  foster  mother  on  insects,  largely  in  the  caterpillar  stage. 
This  simple,  unobtrusive',  and  confiding  bird  is  one  of  the  most 
valuable  in  a  garden,  field,  and  wood,  as  it  feeds  almost  entirely 
upon  insects  ;  the  young  feed  largely  on  cateri)illais,  and  are  free 
from  any  damage  to  useful  eroi)s.  It  is  common  about  dwellings, 
especially  in  winter  time,  and  in  severe'  weatlu'r  most  grateful 
for  any  crumbs  bestowed  by  the  housewife  outde)ors  when  snow 
and  frost  i^revail. 
The  Wren  (Treeglodyte'S  jjarvulus)  freeiue'uts  heelge'rows. 
thickets,  wooels,  and  heeme'.st eads,  hopping  aleont  fe-arb  ssly,  jerk¬ 
ing  its  puny  little  tail,  and  jilaying  its  antics,  mostly  of  a  food¬ 
searching  nature’,  umh'r  the'  e've  of  man.  The  nest  is  Imilt  in 
any  convenient  erann.v,  on  lu’dge  banks,  an  Ivy-covercel  tree. 
J.  Vcitch  it' 
Coleus  thyrsoideus.  (See  page  200). 
the  thatch  of  a  barn,  or  any  secret  warm  place.  The  ne’st  is 
usually  of  even  shape,  always  curved  outside'  with  .some  material 
resembling  the  colour  of  the  objects  round  it,  such  as  green 
moss,  if  built  among  moss-clothed  stems,  or  lichen,  if  built  on  a 
rock  or  in  the  fork  of  a  withered  branch.  The  eggs,  six  or  eiglit, 
are  white,  speckled  with  reddish  brown.  It  is  entirely  insecti¬ 
vorous,  ever  searching  for  insects  in  nooks  and  corners  where 
scarcely  any  other  bird  comes. 
The  Cole  Titmouse  (Parus  ater  or  brittaniens)  is  common 
in  Britain,  inhabiting  Piiu'  plantations  more  than  blue  and 
great  tits.  It  is  coloured  black,  witli  white  i)atches  on  the  neck 
and  cheeks;  th(^  brea.st  is  white,  and  the  belly  pale  fawn.  It 
feeds  upon  insects  or  their  larva?,  caterpillars  (in  season)  forming 
its  principal  food,  these  being  the  sole  food  of  the  .voung.  In 
winter,  when  hard  pressed,  it  fi'cds  on  the  berries  of  the  Wood¬ 
bine  and  .seeds  of  thistle,  hardhead,  A'c. 
The  Marsh  I'itmouse  (Parns  paln.stris)  clo.sely  lesembles  the 
cole  tit,  but  wanting  the  white  spot  on  the  nape  of  the  neck. 
Its  food  consists  of  insects  or  their  larva',  similar  to  the  cole  tit. 
and  has  been  observed  to  feed  the  young  twenty  times  an  hour 
with  caterpillars.  It  inhabits  marshy  situations,  osier  beds,  Arc. 
The  Long-tailed  Tit.mouse  (Parns  candatns  or  Acrednhi 
rosea)  is  easily  distinguished  b.y  the  length  of  its  tail.  Its  nest 
of  oval  shape,  entirely  closed,  except  one  hole  in  the  side,  and  of 
beantifnl  construction,  lichen,  covered  outside  and  lined  with 
feathers,  is  the  receptach'  of  from  ten  to  fourteen  very  small 
and  delicately  s])otted  eggs.  The  food  of  young  and  adults  i:i 
entirely  insectivorous,  and  though  mostly  ri'sorting  in  wood.-, 
and  iiiantations,  freqmntly  visits  hedgerows  and  field  trees, 
also  fruit  plantations,  orchards,  and  gardi'iis,  when*  it  consumes 
countless  numbers  of  ajihis  eggs  and  of  other  jiests;  indeed,  I 
have  known  the  long-tailed  tits  clear  a  plantation  of  Black 
Currants  conqiletely  of  black  apliidi's. 
The  Gold-i’uested  Wren  (Eegulus  eristatu.s),  one  of  the 
smallest  of  British  birds,  has  its  favourite'  n'sort  in  Kir  jilanta- 
tions,  where  it  hops  or  rims  aboni  or  round  1  Ik'  branehes  head 
downwards,  in  .‘-earch  of  insects  lurking  under  or  in  crc'viees  of 
the  hark.  The  nest  is  of  great  beauty,  usually  ]ilaeed  on  the 
undei'  side  of  a  branch,  shelti'red  by  overhanging  foliage. 
The  I'ggs  are  from  six  to  ten  in  iiumlier,  very  small,  and  of  a 
reddisli  white  colour.  Tin'  food  of  .young  and  adults  is  mitin'ly 
