Weihaiwei, Aug. 4—The diet of wild birds is a matter of much interest and a discussion on the question of choice of diet has just been started in the official magazine of the British Ornithologists' Union. Put shortly, the point at issue is this: we all know that birds will eat anything they can find, so long as it is within the scope of their diet, but assuming there is a choice of diet within their range, what will they choose? Such matters are of great importance to farmers and fruitgrowers and consequently well worth enquiring into. Seasonal changes are obvious and so must be taken into consideration. I find, for example, that the Sparrows here feed their young entirely on grubs and caterpillars in June/July, but as soon as the first young are fledged in August they repair to the fields in large flocks and eat grain such as millet and rye, even though there is still a large supply of caterpillars etc., on which the later young are still being fed: that is obviously a matter of choice. As regards the changing of seasons, here is an interesting
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.