INSECT PESTS 161 



through into the next garden found it, and 

 immediately came back to fetch the bit of bacon 

 it had hidden, and lured its child back to safety 

 to my relief as much as that of the bird. I should 

 be grieved if anything happened to them. 



July 14, 1889. 



I think you must be the E. H. who writes in 

 ' Nature ' about flies and swallows. It is not only 

 swallows, as of course you know, that suffer from 

 parasites. About a month ago I was standing at 

 my drawing-room window, when an old blackbird 

 alighted on the lawn just before me, and began to 

 twist and turn, and kick and scratch and peck in 

 a most vigorous and remarkable manner, more 

 especially towards the region of the tail. I thought 

 the bird seemed to be hurt or in convulsions, and 

 went to see if I could render any assistance, 

 but it flew away. When I went back to the 

 window, there was the bird again in the very 

 same place, and doing the same thing ; and as it 

 did it, I saw quite a cloud of little gnats or flies 

 rise from it. It rubbed itself so on the ground 

 that I thought there might be something in the 

 grass there that would help it, but the spot was 



like the rest of the grass. 



August 8, 1889. 



A tarnish cole tit has just been here, asking 

 for bacon and quite at home, yet it must be two 



