PAPERSPAST

Good Little Bad Birds.

There's a little bit of good in every bad little bird, even the sparrow and the starling. During a great many weeks I have been closely observing the feathered folk in my garden and can speak with authority. A wren was seen to feed its young 33 times in an hour, and the food she. brought them consisted of aphides which had been sucking the juice out of my rose and citrus trees, and caterpillars which'had been masticating the young shoots of a highly-prized ..wattle. Two star-, lings paid, 30 and 32 visits to their respective nests in :59 -asnlnutes, with the larvae of click beetles, rose-chafers •and. other beetles; that do immense .daniage to plants. A record wa's Established' by a. sparrow which . made .254 trips to its nest in 3 hours 2 minutes with pests ranging from the mites which attack strawberries' to the caterpilfars of the privet-hedge moth.' Without birds the greater part of vegetation would be immediately destroyed and successful agriculture would be an impossibility. — "Tee Esslie," in "Smith's Weekly."

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