324 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



interference is carried on by man in very many 

 other instances, in a manner highly detrimental 

 to his own interest : he pays the price of a sack 

 of grain for every owl nailed to his barn-door, 

 because that owl would destroy mice every 

 night ; and these mice being relieved of their 

 oppressive enemy would, in a very short time, 

 consume a sack of wheat, peas, or beans. The 

 kestrel, in like manner, kills mice, and the 

 death of a kestrel may fairly be reckoned a 

 loss of five pounds. A sparrow-hawk left to 

 himself, even by scaring the sparrows from the 

 ripening grain, will save the wages of at least 

 three boys. In Scotland the incessant warfare 

 against birds of prey, and the near accom- 

 plishment of their extermiiiation, has allowed 

 such an increase of the ring-dove as to threaten, 

 by their insatiable voracity, a dearth of cereals 

 for the food of man. Associations are formed, 

 officers appointed, speeches made, rewarcw 

 offered : the object being solely and exclusively 

 tc remedy the evil which the speech-makers 

 have, by their supposed sagacity, induced. 

 Fifty such instances might be given, but let 

 us take the particular instance of the turnip- 

 grub. Two birds make it their special and 

 favourite food ; these are the partridge and the 

 rook : it is very interesting to watch with a 

 pocket-glass the instantaneous movement with 

 which they seize on the caterpillar directly 

 they have brought him to the surface, the 

 rook delving for him with its beak, a habit 

 that might have obtained for this invaluable 

 bird the name offodiens rather than frugilegus, 

 and the partridge turning him out by the 

 simple expedient of scratching, after the 

 method practised by all birds of the poultry 

 order. Neither of these birds is favoured with 

 a place in that " gamekeeper's museum," the 

 bole of an oak or the door of a barn ; but, 

 nevertheless, they are persecuted for sport, or 

 destroyed by poison, and, whatever the pre- 

 text for the slaughter, the effect is the same. 

 Partridges and rooks alike grace our tables 

 partridges under their own name, rooks, 

 nomine mutato, as the chief ingredient of pigeon 

 pies. 



Obs. 3. The first author who noticed the 

 *avages of this caterpillar was " F\isfc'"" c " of 



Godalming, in 1832 : the second, Mr. Le Keux 



in the " Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society," in 1840; and the third, Mr. Curtis, 

 in his "Farm Insects,^" in 1860. 



Obs. 4. This is the Brindled Heart and 

 Club (Bombyx catenata) of Haworth (Lep. 

 Brit., No 54), and also the Pectinated Dart 

 (Bombyx pectinatus, Lep. Brit., No 55) ; the 

 Necklace Dart (Bombyx monileus, Lep. Brit., 

 No. 56) ; the Brindled Dart (Bombyx spinulus, 

 Lep. Brit., No. 57); the Dark Dart (Bombyx 

 subatratus, Lep. Brit., No. 6 1 ); and the Black 

 Dart (Bombyx niyricornutus, Lep. Brit., 

 No. 62) ; all these are subsequently placed 

 in the genus Noctua at p. 218-9 of the same 

 work. 



527. Eversman's Rustic (Agrotis fennica.) 



527. EVERSMAN'S RUSTIC. The palpi are 

 rather porrected, and slightly arched, the 

 apical joint sparingly clothed with scales, and 

 very distinct ; the antennae are simple in both 

 sexes, those of the males are slightly incras- 

 sated : the fore wings are very narrow, their 

 colour is dingy bistre-brown, with the inner 

 margin ochreous ; the ochreous area, extending 

 from the base to the third double transverse 

 line, is rather broad, reaching nearly to the 

 discoidal spots ; there are three very distinct 

 double transverse lines, or rather pairs of lines ; 

 the first short, and very near the base of the 

 wing ; the second just before the orbicular ; 

 the third just beyond the reniform ; the fourth 

 is parallel with the hind margin, and emits a 

 number of wedge-shaped markings, pointing 

 towards the base of the wing ; the discoidal 

 spots are very distinct and conspicuous ; the 

 orbicular is rather small, oblique, and oblong ; 

 its circumscription is ochreous-white, its 

 median area dark brown ; the reniform is large, 

 its circumscription ochreous- white, its median 



