THE PROTECTION OF INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS.
All insectivorous birds consume daily an enormous quantity of food, about equal to their own weight. A man would have to devour, in one day, a sausage many metres* long if he had, for example, the same appetite as a robin which requires such a quantity of insects that, grouped together, they would form an earthworm more than a metre long. Taking these irrefutable data as a basis, it has been possible to estimate the quantity of food required, during one year, by a single couple of great titmice (Parus major) with young. The great prolificness of this species is well known, as is also its extraordinary voracity. The tit nests twice a year, the number of eggs varying from six to eleven. It is estimated that a couple with 16 young require, on an average in one year, 75 kilograms* of insects corresponding to 120 million of insects’ eggs or 150 thousand caterpillars. These figures are conclusive as showing the inestimable value of insectivorous b'rds for agriculture and particularly for forests and —Guiseppe Orlando.
* Metre, 3ft. 3in. Kilogram, 2slb.
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Forest and Bird, Issue 49, 1 August 1938, Page 7
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185THE PROTECTION OF INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. Forest and Bird, Issue 49, 1 August 1938, Page 7
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