Seed Distribution

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17955, 6 December 1932, Page 8

Seed Distribution

TN a lecture on “Birds,and Plants” before’, the Liverpool Botanical Society, Mr Eric. Hardy said IS species of birds feed on the berries of the bramble group, 43 ,on the bilberry group, 33 on blackthorn and.cherry, 24 on the erowberry group, ami 14 on the holly. As many an. 20 different, birds had 'been noted feeding da the elderberries, which form one of the. greatest, attractions to a wild bird sanctuary. .Experiments in .which the droppings of weed-gating birds had been planted for. the seeds contained to germinate and be identified showed that more weed seeds are distributed by birds in a dry than a wet summer, and, therefore, there .were more weeds on arable land 1 after n dry year than a wet one. (Birds with gizzards that crush hard seeds, as poultry, pigeons,'finches, and ducks, wefe agriculturally, useful as weed-eaters because they crushed the weed seeds, but insectivorous birds, iike robins and thrushes, distributed the seeds iii a germiiuiblp ..state, and thus what was apparent destruction^ of werjils was actually their distribution over 1 a far wider area. Examination of blackbirds’ crops in. Cheshire shotted. that'for pitic months of the year the birds led on insects,, weed seeds, mostly ragwort, duckweed, s'purrey sqfref. etc., and wild fruits, as wild rose, service tree, and rowan. From July to September,, however, they attacked cultivated, .fruit. Twenty-seven out of 80 blackbirds’ crops contained gooseberries, while 285 bird's examined generally showed that those living near towns ate more insect food and Jess fruit than those living in a fruitgrowing, district. Titmice, after accused of attacking buds, only do so. when after, insects, and 20 blue, tits shot “red handed” at the ■pea rs near 'Chester contained not -a trace of fruit.