128 



might l)c mentioned ; but a\c paf>s to the confideriition of what 

 must follow the destruction of birds. 



The reproductive energy of insects is truly wonderful. It is 

 said that a single pair of grain weevils have produced 0000 

 voung between April and August. The common varieties of 

 aphides, or plant-lice, which are found on almost every kind of 

 [)lant, are produced first from eggs laid the season before, and 

 then through the summer ; only females are developed. At 

 the last of the season males and females both appear, and eggs 

 are laid for the brood that hatches early in the spring. Ileaumer 

 says that one individual in one season may become the progen- 

 itor of six thousand millions. The silk-worm moth produce* 

 about 500 eggs ; the great-goat moth about 1000 ; the tiger 

 moth ICtOO ; the female wasp at least 30,000. There is a spe- 

 cies of white ants, one of which deposits not less than 60 eggs 

 per minute, giving oGOO per hour. Such, then, is the enor- 

 mous fertility of insects, and some of them breed se^•eral times 

 a vear, while most insectiverous birds breed but once a year, 

 and then produce but four or fi^e young. But nature has given. 

 to birds an appetite and an instinct which teaches them exactly" 

 when and ho\\- to go to Avork to capture and destroy insects amll 

 their eggs : and if the number of eggs produced by insects ie 

 wonderful, so the number destroyed l)y a single bird is marvel- 

 ous. Bradley says that a pair of sparrows A\ill destroj* 33J>0 

 carterpillars in a single w-eek. A young martin on a church 

 spire, opposite our window, was visited five times in as many 

 minutes by the parent bird, each time Avith an insects A brood' 

 of partridges will nearly exterminate the denizens of an ant-hill, 

 in a single day. Woodpeckers are incessantly eamploycd in 

 ridding the orchards of insects and their eggs, whic-li they skill— 

 fully discover under the pieces of dead bark. Robins, throug^i- 

 out the spring and summer, are continually digging for worms 

 and grubs, which they find concealed beneath the surface of tlie 

 ground. A day or two since we noticed a conunon chippiijg- 

 sparrow ca])ture a moth, and upon depriving her of it, vfC 

 f()und it to be tliat of the common ap[)lc-tree caterpillar (Clisi- 



