4o6 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



Whether or not we are able to do any of this practical 

 work, we should strive to gain definite knowledge of the 

 role these animals play in nature. So few of our birds 

 are truly nocturnal, and so many of our worst insect pests 

 — the codling moth, tent-caterpillar moths, the white- 

 marked tussock moth, owlet moths, parents of the cut- 

 worms, June beetles, mosquitoes, and a host of others — 



Fig. 164. Feeding a Bat 



have taken refuge in the darkness, that we need the bat as 

 the night police of our gardens. They should be accorded 

 much the same protection as our most valuable insectiv- 

 orous birds. Koebele describes bats flitting about an 

 infested apple tree catching codling moths on the wing 

 and even snapping them from the leaves, and the writer 

 has repeatedly fed these moths and their larvae to bats in 

 confinement. 



