Packard.] nSTSECTS OF THE GAKDEN. 47 



except towards the base ; they are as long as the body, and 

 while longer than in the female are also somewhat flattened 

 out. The thorax has the wing-scales and the prothorax, or 

 collar, honey-yellow. The under side and tip of the abdo- 

 men are honej'-yellow. 



The injury done to currant and gooseberry bushes is very 

 great. They strip the bushes, eating the leaves down to the 

 leaf-stalk, myriads clustering upon the branches. The birds 

 evidently do not feed upon them, and thus in dealing with 

 this insect "we are deprived of one of the most powerful 

 agencies in nature for restraining a superabundiince of insect 

 life. We can scarcely realize the amount of good done to 

 the farmer and gardener by insectivorous birds. 



As this is an important and practical subject, let us digress 

 for a moment, to notice some facts brought out by Mr. J. J. 

 Weir, a member of the London Entomological Society, on 

 the insects that seem distasteful to birds. He finds by 

 caging up birds whose food is of a mixed character (purely 

 insect-eating birds could not be kept alive in confinement), 

 that all liair}' caterpillars were uniformly uneaten. Such 

 caterpillars are the "yellow bears" (Arctia and Spilosoma), 

 the salt-marsh caterpillars (Leticarctia acr(jed), the cater- 

 pillar of the vaporer moth (Orgyia), and the spring larva; of 

 butterflies ; with these may perhaps be classed the European 

 currant saw fly. He was disposed to consider that the 

 "flavor of these caterpillars is nauseous, and not tliat the 

 meclianieal troublesomeness of the hairs prevents their being 

 eaten. Larva; which spin wel)s, and are gregarious, are eaten 

 by birds, but not Avith avidit}- ; they appear very much to 

 dislike the web sticking to tlicir beaks, and those com- 

 pletely concealed in tlie web are left unmolested. WhcMi 

 branches covered with the wel) of ]I>jponomenta evonymcUa 

 (a little moth of the Tinea family) Avere introduced into 

 the aviarj-, those larvae only which ventured beyond the 

 protection of the Aveb were eaten." " Smooth-skinned, gail}'- 



15 



