20 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



such are very generally despised on that account, much as 

 we may admire their beautiful colors and motions. If we 

 were able, we would destroy them all at once. But we 

 forget that our trees, with all their beautiful foliage, are not 

 more pleasing to us than the feathered warblers that build 

 their nests on the branches, and gladden us with their happy 

 songs. We should take from our groves and forests half 

 their charm if we were to expel our Robins, Thrushes, 

 Mocking-birds, Jays, Orioles, Tanagres, Finches, Black- 

 birds, Cedar-birds, and many hundred others. And yet, 

 were we to annihilate Caterpillars, our gardens, woods, and 

 fields would soon be abandoned by the whole feathered tribe 

 who feed on them, and melancholy sadness shroud the abodes 

 of man. Ardently, then, would we long for the return of 

 the noxious Caterpillars, and with them the joyous song- 

 sters of the forest. In like manner, we ignorantly despise, 

 and contrive means to destroy many birds who devour our 

 vegetables, without considering that they rid us of a much 

 greater evil in destroying millions of mice and noxious in- 

 sects — so beautifully is the doctrine of compensation illus- 

 trated throughout the Animal Kingdom, as well as in all 

 the objects of Nature. 



Now among the Beetles of prey, which feed on other liv- 

 ing insects, I mention first the handsome Lady-bird {Coc- 

 ci?ieUa), which is quite small, of a discoid form, and for the 

 most part yellow or red, with or without spots ; but some 

 species are black. They look like colored turtles, and are 

 known to every child. But few persons know that these 

 little creatures are of great service in the economy of Na- 

 ture. They are found upon all those trees and shrubs 

 which are infested with the plant-lice {Aphis) which are so 

 injurious to peach, pear, apple, and plum trees, and others, 

 as well as rose-bushes and other shrubs, and they make 

 their principal food of these disgusting and destructive 

 creatures. 



