THE ENTOMOLOGIST. Q05 



"Scarcely anything comes amiss to the ravenous hosts 

 when famished. They will feed upon the dry bark of trees 

 or the dry lint of seasoned fence-planks, and upon dry leaves, 

 paper, cotton and woollen fabrics. They have been seen 

 literally covering the backs of sheep, eating the wool ; and 

 whenever one of their own kind is weak or disabled, from 

 cause whatsoever, they go for him or her with cannibalistic 

 ferocity, and soon finish the struggling and kicking unfortu- 

 nate. They do not refuse even dead animals, but have been 

 seen feasting on dead bats and birds. Few things, therefore, 

 come amiss to them ; yet where food is abundant they are 

 fastidious, and much prefer acid, bitter or peppery, food, to 

 that which is sweet. The following resume of my notes and 

 observations may prove interesting: — 'Vegetables and cereals 

 are their main-stay ; turnips, rutabagas, carrots, cabbage, 

 kohlrabi, and radishes, are all devoured with avidity ; 

 beets and potatoes with less relish, though frequently nothing 

 but a {g\\ stalk-stubs of the latter are left, and sometimes the 

 tubers in the ground do not escape ; onions they are very 

 partial to, seldom leaving anything but the outer rind ; of 

 leguminous plants the pods are preferred to the leaves, which 

 are often passed by; cucurbitaceous plants also suffer most 

 in the fruit; in the matter of tobacco their tastes are culti- 

 vated, and they seem to relish an old quid or an old cigar 

 more than the green leaf; tomatoes and sweet potatoes are 

 not touched, so long as other food is to mouth. Of cereals, 

 corn is their favourite ; if young and tender, everything is 

 devoured to the ground ; if older and dryer, the stalks are 

 mostly left; the silk is, however, the first part to go. All 

 other cereals are to their taste, except sorghum and broom- 

 corn, which are often left untouched. They are fond of 

 buckwheat and flax, but seldom touch castor-beans. Next 

 to vegetables and cereals they relish the leaves of fruit-trees : 

 they strip apple and sweet cherry-trees, leaving nothing but 

 the fruit hanging on the bare twigs. The leaves of the peach 

 are generally lelt untouched, but the flesh of the unripe fruit 

 is eaten to the stone. Pear-trees, as Mr. Gale informs me, 

 suffered less than any other kind of orchard-tree at the 

 Experimental Farm at Manhattan, Kansas. The tender bark 

 of twig and branch and trunk of all tiiese trees is gnawed and 

 girdled; and these girdled trcet^ present a sad })icture as one 



