A most surprising complaint about the destructive habits of some
birds has been given publicity lately in The Times and elsewhere. The missel thrush, earliest of nesters, lustiest of singers, most salient in form, has been put down among the Harpies. He has so dibbled perfectly good lawns with holes that the surface has suffered as sometimes a tilth of newly grown wheat will suffer from the ministration of larks and stares. I have seen grass paths pock-marked deeply and freely. The agents proved to be pheasants who had dug up buttercup bulbs. One part of a neighbouring golf links was so holed by starlings that some golfers thought it was due to the spiked wheels of a tractor. That thrushes should imitate such feats is a new idea. The reason un- doubtedly is that this dry winter has been abnormally kind to the insects' race—to the larvae, pupae and eggs ; and our chief protection is and will be the population of insect eating birds. Even the robins, for the first- time in my memory, have been puncturing a cut lawn with the thoroughness of a starling and the activity of a wagtail.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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