INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 291 



and pecked on all sides by them. The partridge takes 

 her young brood to an ant-hill, where they feast upon 

 the larvae and pupae, which Swammerdam informs us 

 were sold at market in his time to feed various kinds of 

 birds ^. Dr. Clarke also mentions having seen them, as 

 well as the ants themselves, exposed to sale in the mar- 

 ket at Moscow as a food for nightingales''. Latreille tells 

 us that singing birds are fed in France with the larvae of 

 the horse-ant [Formica rufa). 



But the Linnean order of Passeres affords the greatest 

 number of insectivorous birds ; indeed almost all the spe- 

 cies of this order, except perhaps the pigeon-tribe, and 

 the cross-bill and other Loxia?, more or less eat insects. 

 Amongst the thrush tribe, the blackbird, though he M'ill 

 have his share of our gooseberries and currants, assists 

 greatly in clearing our gardens of caterpillars ; and the 

 locust-eating thrush is still more useful in the countries 

 subject to that dreadful pest : these birds never appear 

 but with the locusts, and then accompany them in asto- 

 nishing numbers, preying upon them in their larva state. 

 The common sparrow, though proscribed as a most mis- 

 chievous bird, destroys a vast number of insects. Bradley 

 has calculated that a single pair having young to main- 

 tain, will destroy 3360 caterpillars in a week*^. They 

 also prey upon butterflies and other winged insects. The 

 fly-catchers {Muscicapa) and the warblers {MotaciUa), 

 which include our sweetest songsters, are almost entirely 

 supported by insects; so that were it not for these despised 

 creatures we should be deprived of some of our greatest 

 pleasures, and half the interest and delight of our vernal 



« Bib. Nat. i. 126. b. " Travels, i. 110. ■= Reaum. ii. 408. 

 U 2 



