Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/170

 strewn about, and inferred that it had been torn up by either the thrush or blackbird in search of food : from what is just stated, there can be little doubt of the correctness of my in- ference. Mr. Moore, now curator of the Botanic Garden, Glas- nevin, Dublin, informed me in the last-mentioned year, that when he was in the College Botanic Garden near that city, he remarked several species of plants to be much injured by birds ; and. more especially the rare alpine plant, Cherleria sedoides. In the month of September of two different years, I remarked an old male blackbird regaling on the flowers of a fine large bushy Fuchsia coccinea, in the midst of which he remained for a considerable time; on the former occasion, which was at the end of the month, the plant was profusely in berry, but retained only a few flowers, — the last ones of summer, — yet of these only did he partake ; in the other instance it was covered with bloom. In the middle of June, 1843, two of my relatives living at Ballysillan, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, were attracted during a few successive days by numbers of blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows, and robins, flying to the grass of the verdure garden before the windows of the house, and bearing off white objects in their bills : — on going to the place, my friends found some of them, which on being brought to me, proved to be all ghost moths (Hepialus humuli). A blackbird which was often seen about the parlour window at a friend's country-house, was fed during frost with crumbs of bread thrown beneath a tree within view of the house ; others came to join in the repast, and were sometimes beaten away by it, as was a missel thrush, which —though its superior in size, and a bolder species — was not permitted to pick up a morsel. The presumption was, that the same blackbird "ruled the roast" all the time, and was bold and confident from the locality being its home. Robins may often be seen driving strange birds of their own species from their "beats." Birds of various kinds have not only their homes, where they act like man in considering "his house his castle" but lay claim also to the regions round about, and drive all others of the species from their locality.