Ailanthiculture. 215 
themselves for their last effort, others already have begun their 
cocoons. Ata coup-d’cil in a space of 20 yards you may see 
hundreds of these fine and beautiful creatures in a state of nature, 
unprotected and completely exposed to the glance of every passing 
bird, and it was most surprising to me that they-did not attack 
them; yet I never saw a bird in my Ailanthery, except on one 
occasion when I started a thrush out, though I saw hundreds of 
sparrows in the adjoining fields, and though blackbirds and 
thrushes were numerous in the neighbouring gardens. I would on 
this point offer a few remarks: Ist, being by the side'of a rail- 
way the noise of passing trains might operate to keep some birds 
at a distance; 2nd, being a new crop the birds may not have found 
them out or have become sufficiently acquainted with their habits 
and the foliage of the Ailanthus tree to look for them in plantations 
of those trees. I would moreover add that the fact of changing 
their head-quarters from the nursery to the larger Ailanthery must 
operate against their being found out by the birds ; for, supposing 
that a young colony is hatched out, it might and probably would be 
some days before they were found out by the birds ; then if they 
were moved off to another spot at a distance, the same birds would 
never find them again, and the birds of the new locality, never 
having seen larve on Ailanthus trees before, would be slow to 
look for them there. But I think they are not attractive to birds, 
except to the tomtit, robin and rook, two of which are very mis- 
chievous, and all three naturally very destructive to insect life. 
The tomtit may be avoided by avoiding plantations and trees which 
these birds frequent; the robin will be found only near houses 
and farms, and the neighbourhood of rookeries may likewise be 
shunned. But there are other reasons why birds probably will not 
ravage the larve to the extent which many persons might fancy. 
For it would be well to avoid carrying on extensive rearing of larve 
in early summer, when sparrows, &c., are in great quest of larve 
for their brood. ‘There are also two other great inducements to 
postpone Ailanthiculture to a later period: Ist, because there is 
in June a scanty foliage on the trees compared with the luxuriance 
of August; 2nd, the moths of an early crop would probably emerge 
in the autumn and their eggs consequently be useless. It will 
therefore be wise to postpone the main crop till midsummer, and 
I should prefer to commence when the cherry season begins, an 
event which always attracts all birds towards gardens, and will 
therefore leave the Ailantheries pretty quiet. 
This will be the month of July, which in my opinion in this 
country is the best time to commence Ailanthiculture; the early 
stages of the larvee are then commenced in the cherry season, and 
