Birds and Berries Of all the berries that have been
produced in their multi- tudes by the warmth of the two last summers, none is more splendid than the Crataegus pyracanthus. I have especially admired two walls of two old country houses so continuously red with the berries that they might easily have been mistaken at a distance for red brick. The owner of one of them said that the bushes were known in his district as " fieldfare's food " ; and sure enough on the very next morning the first fieldfares were seen eating greedily. The pyracanthus on the other house is carefully netted against birds ; but even so inissel thrushes, thrushes and blackbirds cannot altogether be kept at bay. We may hope that the multi- plicity of those berries will indirectly save the hales. These last year, against the usual practice of the thrush tribe which chiefly devour them, were raided just before Christmas. The birds generally save them up for later frosty weather, and the holly merchants (who incidentally become a great nuisance) are not defrauded. Holly berries have a higher and higher market value. If ever they were splendid, they are splendid this year.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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