OF HARTING. 335 



autumn. They have been turning up acres and acres 

 of turf to an extent, that I, the impartial chronicler of 

 their deeds, never saw before, in the parks at Uppark 

 and Lady Holt, in the lowland pastures and on the 

 sheep downs, in quest, as I have good reason to 

 believe, of the larvae of Phyllopertha horticola, an 

 insect that abounded here so astonishingly last sum- 

 mer, that it darkened every growing plant with its 

 numbers, dissected the leaves of the hazel and other 

 underwoods in the copses, leaving nothing but un- 

 sightly botanical skeletons on the young shoots, 

 remorselessly disfigured the roses in the garden, and 

 lastly made a most wanton attack on the ferns in my 

 collection. In short, they seemed to be endowed with 

 such an unsparing appetite, and so accommodating a 

 digestive apparatus, that they found a repast in almost 

 every green leaf on which they alighted, with the ex- 

 ception perhaps of those of evergreens ; but hundreds 

 perished in the rash attempt to rifle the sweets of the 

 blossoms of the Tulip tree (Liriodendron Tulipiferd), 

 which probably contained a poison as fatal as it was 

 attractive to them. A similar visitation, attended with 

 even greater destruction, is remembered by the patri- 

 archs of the village, as having made one year of their 

 local history remarkable, and then, as now, the rooks 

 had their autumnal feast the following season, scarcely 

 a yard of the turf on the lawn at Uppark was left 

 untouched by them, and great was the dismay of the 

 then park-keeper at the loss of such an extent of 

 pasture ; but the following spring did more than com- 

 pensate for this temporary damage, thanks to the 

 rooks the grass sprang up in greater vigour and luxu- 

 riance than before, and for a few seasons afterwards 

 the lawn looked fresher and greener than any other 

 part of the park where the surface had not been 

 disturbed." 



Several species of Elater (Skip-jacks) are common 

 with us, and as their larvae are the well known Wire- 



