OBSERVATIONS. 



70 



number of times it returned to its 

 nest in thirty minutes to be nine, 

 we may assume this bird destroys 

 say sixty hirvie per hour for ten hours 

 daily, being on a low computation 

 the enormous number of six hundred 

 larvae per day during the breeding 

 season. When the great size of the 

 laiva is taken into consideration 

 this seems almost incredible. The 

 next best friend we have is the Mole, 

 (Talpa vulgaris) and of course he is 

 the next great enemy H. hiimuUlms. 

 This animal, living pnnci])ally upon 

 insects, is not slow to *' ply havoc 

 and let loose the ' moles ' of war " at 

 this larva, for it must prove a dainty 

 dish to these little fellows, (whose 

 receent food has probably been 

 hard wire worms, with a dirty Bot 

 now and then, or perhnps the up- 

 turning tail of a larva of a Stapha- 

 line whose head was poison, as the 

 head of the Gurnards, " Trigula cu- 

 culiis" and *' Gurnardus" are said to 

 be by old fish wives, simply because 

 there is naught but bone in or upon 

 it). Shortly after, it is hatched ; and 

 doubtless its appetite grows with the 

 growth of the larva, else with a root 

 feeder which against the continuous 

 attacks of its rapacious enemies, still 

 maintains itself in strong force, how 

 should we poor mortals destroy it ; 

 and if we could not, it would eventu- 

 ally destroy us and our cattle, sim- 

 ple as it is. Let us then as entomolo- 

 gists raise our voices in favour of the 



bird and the mole, let us shew that 

 without them insects would so in- 

 crease that we should decrease, that 

 the food they feed upon lives upon 

 our food, and that in destroying one 

 we do but increase the other, to the 

 decrease of our requirements ; and 

 let us by these little facts prove per- 

 sistently our case, until " poisoned 

 grain," " Sparrow heads," (paid for) 

 and *' Mole catchers " are spoken of 

 as things that were; for, as I said in 

 a little paper dated 1855, " Moles 

 like men remove when food is scarce," 

 and shoukl not, nay cannot, be 

 driven from where it is plentiful. — 

 C. S. Grkgson, Spring Hill, Stanley, 

 near Liverpool, June 5th, 18G-1. 



The Yew and its Galls. 

 It has been stated by a recent 

 writer, who has attained to some 

 degree of well-merited popularity, 

 that no insect feeds on any part of 

 the Yew, excepting its berries ; and 

 that furniture made of Yew has the 

 recommendation of being entirely 

 exempt from the attacks of the in- 

 sect community. Recent experience, 

 however, has proved that this state- 

 ment is not altogether correct. The 

 green and tinted bosses, so fre- 

 quently covering the yew, and which 

 call to mind miniature representa- 

 tions of the artichoke, are the work 

 of a dipterous insect (Cecidomyia 

 Taxi). In June, 1861, 1 succeeded 

 in hatching a considerable number 



