106 DESTROYING INSECTS. [CHAP. V. 



of sheltering newly-transplanted plants, &c. ; 

 and for winter use she should have several bee- 

 hive-like covers, each with a handle for lifting 

 it, formed of plaited rashes or some similar 

 material, which may be easily made by poor 

 women and children in country places, under 

 the direction of a lady ; and w hich will be a 

 charitable mode of employing them. 



Insects and Snails and Slugs are the terror 

 of all gardeners ; and the destruction they effect 

 in some seasons, in small gardens, is almost 

 beyond the bounds of credibility. Birds do 

 comparatively little injury, and, indeed, all the 

 soft-billed kinds (which fortunately include most 

 of the sweetest songsters) do good. The willow 

 wren and the common wren, the blackcap, the 

 nightingale, the redstart, all the warblers and 

 fly-catchers, the swallows and martins, the wag- 

 tails, the wryneck, the tomtit, the fern owl or 

 nightjar, and many others, live almost entirely 

 on insects, and destroy great numbers every 

 year; while the blackbird and the thrush, the 

 robin and the sparrows, though they devour a 

 portion of the fruit, destroy insects also. All 

 birds may, indeed, be safely encouraged in small 

 gardens near towns, as they will do much more 

 good than injury; and a few cherries and cur- 

 rants are a cheap price to pay for their delightful 

 songs. 



As it is the larvae only of insects, with very 

 few exceptions, that do injury to vegetation, 

 many persons never think of destroying them 

 in any other state ; forgetting that every but- 

 terfly that we see fluttering about may lay 

 thousands of eggs, and that if we wait till these 



