IJVDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED PROM INSECTS. 287 



habits — is known to feed upon insects, vvlsich it first 

 impales alive on the thorns of the sloe and other spinous 

 plants, and then devours. If meat be given it, when 

 kept in a cage, it will fix it upon the wires before it 

 eats it. Lanius Excubitor also impales insects, but 

 Heckewelder denies that it feeds upon them. If he be 

 correct, the object of this singular procedure with that 

 species, may be to allure the birds, which it preys upon, 

 to a particular spot^. 



Amongst the Piece or Pies the Crotopkaga, called 

 the Ani, which is a native of Africa and America, lives 

 upon the locust and Acorns riciniis, which it picks in 

 great numbers from the backs of cattle ; but none are 

 greater devourers of insects in this order than rooks. 

 It is for the grubs of Melolontha, Tipula, &c., that they 

 follow the plough ; and they always frequent the mea- 

 dows in which these larvae abound, destroying them in 

 vast numbers. Kalm tells us, that when the little crow 

 was extirpated from Virginia at an enormous expense, 

 the inhabitants would willingly have brought them 



^ According to Mr. Heckewelder (Trans. Jm. Phil. Soc. iv. 124.) L. Ex- 

 cubilor, called in America the nine-killer, from an idea that it transfixes 

 nine individuals daily, treats in this mRnnev Grass Jioppers only; while 

 L, CoUttrio would seem to restrict itaelf chicily to Scarabtei, two of which 

 Mr. Sheppard once observed transfixed in a hedge that he knew to be the 

 residence of this bird. Kiigellan even thinks that it impales only S. ver- 

 iialis, which he has often found transfixed, but never S. stercorarhis. 

 (Schneid. Mag. 259.) I must remark, however, that 1 last summer ob- 

 served two humble-bees quite alive, impaled on the thorns of a hedge near 

 my house, which had most probably been so placed by this species, L. Ex- 

 cubilor being rarely found except in mountainous wiids. (Bewick's 

 Birds, i. 61.) And Prof. Sander states that on opening this bird (L. Col- 

 lurio) he has sometimes found in its stomach nothing but grasshoppers, and 

 at others small beetles and other insects. Nulurforscher Slk, xviii..234. 



