108 DESTROYING INSECTS. [CHAP. V. 



as they feed on almost every different kind of 

 tree ; but with that beautiful arrangement by 

 which all the works of our Great Creator are 

 balanced equally with each other, and none 

 allowed to predominate, these insects are such 

 favourite food for birds, that not a hundredth 

 part of them are suffered to reach maturity. 

 The eggs of the lackey moth are often found 

 fixed on a naked twig in winter, looking like a 

 bracelet of hard beads, and adhering- so firmly 

 together, that the whole bracelet may be slipped 

 off entire. 



The cabbage butterflies are also very destruc- 

 tive in the larva state. The caterpillars are soft, 

 of a pale whitish green, and very active, leap- 

 ing about in the hand when taken ; and the 

 chrysalis, which is also green, looks as if it were 

 swathed up like a mummy. 



The caterpillar of the beautiful little ermine 

 moth, which is a gregarious feeder, like the 

 caterpillar of the lackey moth, is nearly as de- 

 structive; and it is the more necessary to men- 

 tion this, because the moth itself is so small, so 

 delicate, and so quiet, that no one unacquainted 

 with its habits would think of killing it as an 

 injurious insect. 



The leaf-rollers, the saw-flies, and the gnats 

 which occasion the oak-galls, are all very de- 

 structive. The leaves of the rose tree are often 

 found marked, in summer, with pale brown 

 zigzag lines, with a narrow black line running 

 down the middle of each. These lines are the 

 work of a very small orange-coloured cater- 

 pillar, not more than two lines long, that lives 

 on the parenchyma of the leaf; and the pale 



