38 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



with them. In every wood and hedgerow may be seen numerous 

 insectivorous birds, and many of these, although comparatively 

 small, destroy an immense number of insects in comparison to 

 their size. The enormous quantity of insects destroyed by a 

 single pair of blue titmice during the breeding season is well 

 shown in that excellent work the ' Birds of Norfolk,' by Mr. 

 Henry Stevenson, in which it is stated, on trustworthy authority, 

 that a pair, which were closely watched from half-past three 

 o'clock on a July morning until half-past eight in the evening, 

 fed their young four hundred and seventy-five times. It is also 

 stated that they appeared to feed them solely on caterpillars : 

 sometimes they brought in a single large one, and at other times 

 two or three small ones ; and it is therefore impossible to say 

 to what exact numbers their depredations extended. The above 

 note, therefore, gives a good idea of the great destruction caused 

 by those very common little birds. 



In August I shot a goatsucker hawking for food, and from its 

 mouth I took no less than a dozen various Noctuse, just caught, 

 no doubt, for its young. This bird feeds almost entirely on 

 night-flying moths and beetles, taken on the wing during the two 

 dusk hours in which they fly, — before sunrise and after sunset. 

 The number of imagines thus destroyed must be very great. 



Certainly since the Wild Birds' Protection Act has been in 

 force birds of all kinds, especially the smaller sorts, as warblers 

 and titmice, which feed principally on insects, — also the finches, 

 which do their share at times, — have very greatly increased, and 

 therefore it is obvious that insects must decrease ; and during 

 such mild winters as last, when no doubt most hybernating larvae 

 are frequently on the move, and therefore more conspicuous, 

 would sooner become prey than if they remained quiet and 

 hidden. I have seen flocks of golden-crested wrens (the smallest 

 of European birds, and now extremely common), often in 

 company with a flock of long-tailed titmice, together working a 

 hedge in the winter for any morsel of insect-food they may 

 happen to come across, and scarcely a branch or twig is passed 

 without receiving a due share of their notice, and usually some- 

 thing found. During such a mild and open winter as last, birds 

 survive and insects perish ; and not only are birds enemies 

 of insects in such winters, but mice are on the alert to devour 

 any pupse with which they may chance to meet. 



