142 THE WOODLANDS. 



The wagtails and the starlings render very similar 

 services to our cattle. The swallows destroy myriads 

 of winged insects which never rest, and which we see 

 dancing in the sun's rays : gnats, midges, and flies. 

 The goat-suckers and the martinets, twilight hunters, 

 effect the disappearance of the cockchafers, the 

 gnats, the moths, and a swarm of nibbling insects 

 which work only by night. The magpie hunts after 

 the insects which, concealed beneath the bark of 

 trees, live upon its sap. The humming-bird, the fly- 

 catcher, in tropical countries purify the chalice of 

 the flower. The bee-eater in all lands carries on a 

 fierce hostility against the wasps which ruin our fruit. 

 The goldfinch, partial to uncultivated soil and the 

 seeds of the thistle, prevents the latter from spreading 

 over the ground. Our garden birds the chaffinches, 

 blackcaps, blackbirds, tits strip our fruit bushes and 

 great trees of the grubs, caterpillars, and beetles, 

 whose ravages would be incalculable. A large 

 number of these insects remain during winter in 

 the egg or the larva, waiting for spring to burst into 

 life ; but in this state they are diligently hunted 

 up by the mavis, the wren, the troglodyte. The 

 former turn over the leaves which strew the earth ; 

 the latter climb to the loftiest branches, or clear 

 out the trunk. In wet meadows you may see 

 the crows and storks boring the ground to seize 

 on the white worm which for three years, before 

 metamorphosing into a cockchafer, gnaws at the 

 roots of grasses. Here we pause, not to weary our 

 reader, and yet the list of useful birds is scarcely 

 glanced at." 



