So small a proportion of animal food can not, of course, mean a great destruction of insects. As these stomachs were collected in every month, with the greater number taken during the summer, it is evident that whatever good one may expect from the linnet must not be looked for in this direction. Unlike most of the sparrow family, the linnet does not feed its young upon Insects to any great extent. The contents of the stomachs of a number of nestlings were carefully examined, and the only animal food was found to consist of wooly plant lice. These also constituted the great bulk of the animal food eaten by adults. The vegetable food of the species consists of three principal items--grain, fruit, and weed seeds. Grain amounts to less than 1½ per cent in August, which is the month of greatest consumption, and the average for the year is a trifle more than one-fourth of 1 per cent. Fruit attains its maximum in September, when it amounts to 27 per cent of the whole food, but the average for the year is only 10 per cent. The seeds of weeds constitute the bulk of the diet of the linnet, and in August, the month of least consumption, amount to about 64 per cent of the food. The average for the year is 86 per cent. From the foregoing it is evident that whatever the linnet's sins may be, grain eating is not one of them. In view of the great complaint made against its fruit-eating habits, the small quantity found in the stomachs taken is somewhat of a surprise. But it must be remembered that the stomach contents do not tell the whole story. When a bird takes a single peck from a cherry or an apricot, it spoils the whole fruit, and in this way may ruin half a dozen in taking a single meal. It is safe to say that the fruit pulp found In the stomach does not represent more than one-fifth of what is actually destroyed. That the linnets are persistent and voracious eaters of early fruits, especially cherries and apricots, every fruit raiser hi California will bear testimony. That the damage is often serious no one will deny. It is noticeable, however, that the earliest varieties are the ones most affected; also, that in large orchards the damage is not perceptible, while in small plantations the whole crop is frequently destroyed. THE GRACKLES.