136 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. VIII. 



Various methods have been proposed for destroy- 

 ing the insect, both in the larva and imago ; when in 

 the larva state, it is proposed to cause the plough to 

 be followed by children, to gather up in baskets 

 such of these animals as the share might upturn, 

 and then burn them. The method proposed for de- 

 stroying the perfect insects is to burn flambeaux 

 made of sulphur, surrounded with pitch, rosin, and 

 a slight external layer of yellow wax : while the in- 

 sects remain in a state of repose on the leaves and 

 hedges, the flambeaux being paraded under, the in- 

 sects are suffocated by the smoke and the odour of 

 the sulphur, rosin, &c., so that they are easily 

 shaken off and burnt. 



The rook, jay, and several other omnivorous 

 birds, are thought, instead of being reckoned a 

 nuisance to man, amply to deserve his protection, 

 for the great benefit they confer on the farmer ; for 

 nearly three months of the spring they do little else 

 than walk about the fields for the purpose of seek- 

 ing for and feeding on the grub of this destructive 

 insect. From the following curious calculation, an 

 idea may be formed as to the just value of these 

 much-injured birds : " Suppose a nest of five young 

 jays, each, while yet young, consumed," says a 

 cautious observer, " at least fifteen of these full- 

 sized grubs in a day, and averaging their sizes, it 

 may be said they each consumed twenty ; this, for 

 five, makes one hundred; and if we suppose the 

 two parents to devour between them the same num- 

 ber, it appears that this family consumed about two 

 hundred. This, in three months, amounts to 20,000 : 

 but as the grub continues in the same state four 

 years, this single family, without reckoning their 

 descendants after the first year, would destroy as 

 many as 80,000 grubs. Now, supposing that 40,000 

 of these insects would have been in due time 

 females, and that each female lays, as is really the 

 case, two hundred eggs, it will appear that no less 



