136 London Insects. 



self-reproductive powers and quick growth of many 

 of the commonest insects, or their powers of con- 

 sumption. 



It was a locust who told Mahomet that his tribe 

 were the army of Allah, and that had it pleased Him 

 to fix the number of their eggs at a hundred instead 

 of at ninety-nine a-piece, the earth and all that was 

 in it would have been consumed. 



It is not necessary to look beyond our London 

 flower-boxes green and bright with blossoms one 

 day, and a week later, little better than dry skeletons, 

 or with every leaf riddled as if it had been a target for 

 snipe shot practice to find proof enough that Moths 

 might boast as much. 



Two years ago a couple of homely-looking brown 

 Moths, the common Cabbage (Mamestra brassicce) y 

 found their way into a conservatory, the ornament of 

 a London house. The owner was weak enough to 

 be flattered with the thought that the Moths had 

 chosen the place as the best imitation of the 

 country they could find in London, and with some 

 sort of foolish idea that their presence added to 

 the rural charms of the fern banks, in a fit of mis- 

 taken tenderness (perhaps of vanity) they were left 

 undisturbed, and made themselves at home for a day 

 or two. 



It was the husbandman warming the snake in his 

 bosom ; Sinbad the sailor giving a lift to the poor old 

 man of the sea ; Eve coquetting with the serpent ; 

 and the result was in its own degree as disastrous 

 The next year one or two more of the same kind 

 were seen, and the freshness of the country began to 

 leave the conservatory. The following year it was 

 from bad to worse. Human efforts could not stop the 

 mischief, and no little birds were there to come to the 



