NO STAIN ON THEIR CHARACTERS 



moth multiplied with the most extraordinary rapidity, and 

 it is said that about 500,000 dollars was spent in one year in 

 the attempt to stamp it out. 



All this happened because an entomologist forgot to lock 

 up his eggs when he went away for half an hour ! 



These caterpillars and the locusts devour the leaves bodily, 

 but there are others which live inside them. These so-called 

 "leaf-miner" caterpillars make white irregularly- winding • 

 tunnels between the upper and the lower skin of the leaf. 

 The tunnel increases or widens because the caterpillar itself 

 grows fatter £is it eats its tunnel. They can be seen on a 

 great many leaves, and can be at once recognized by this 

 peculiarity. 



Plants cannot run away from their enemies like animals, 

 and it would seem at first sight that their case was very 

 hopeless. But it is not so, for there is a vast, active, keen- 

 eyed, and eager army of helpers always ready for eggs and 

 caterpillars. 



It is birds that are of the greatest importance. A tit- 

 mouse will eat 200,000 insects in a season. A starling has 

 been seen to fetch food for its young ones from a grass 

 paddock 100 yards away no less than eighteen times in a 

 quarter of an hour. All the following are excellent birds, 

 and without a stain upon their characters : the plover, 

 partridge, robin, wagtail, starling. Crows and wood- 

 pigeons are under suspicion, for though the latter do good 

 in devouring the seeds of weeds, and the former in destroying 

 wireworms, both are fond of corn and take large quantities 

 of it. 



Thrushes, mavises, and blackbirds are amongst the most 

 persevering and useful of our friends, but they are certainly 

 fond of fruit. Yet the good which they do is very much 



297 



