134 STUDY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



grubs which, in ordinary seasons, may be ga- 

 thered in a small garden, it is remaikable, that 

 it would be a difficult task to find ten perfect flies 

 in any one day. How they are destroyed, I 

 have not been able to ascertain. I have never 

 observed that any of the nimble little fly-catching 

 birds feed upon them. With me, poultry of all 

 kinds refuse eating them ; and even young par- 

 tridges and pheasants, which, till they are half 

 grown, feed chiefly upon insects, can seldom be 

 induced, however hungry, to taste them. 



I have very recently been informed, by two 

 respectable persons in my neighbourhood, that 

 the cuckoo sometimes clears a garden in a very 

 short time ; and I have also lately learnt that salt 

 dug into the ground near the roots, in spring, has 

 been used with success.* 



* In Reaumur, torn. 5, part. 1, there is an engraving of an 

 insect of this family hibernating within the pithy part of the mid- 

 summer shoot of the gooseberry bush. If this was the usual 

 resting place of these animals, digging round the roots of the 

 plant would not disturb them. Apprehending that the difficulties 

 attending the selection of such a hiding-place would at once 

 account for the very few perfect tenthredines we meet with, I 

 have caused a very extensive and careful examination to be made 

 with a view to corroborate this accurate entomologist, but hitherto 

 without success ; and, after considerable attention paid to the ha- 

 bits of these insects, when I have bred them in boxes, I have still 

 little doubt that their general winter-quarters are in the ground. 



