220 COCKCHAFFERS. 



of ignorance, affords ; and if by any consideration we 

 can advance one point nearer to the comprehension of 

 what is hidden, we infinitely increase our satisfaction 

 and delight. 



May 24, 1827. Abundance of cockchaffers (melo- 

 lantha vulgaris) are flying about, yet by no means in 

 the profusion of some years. How much at times the 

 interest of man and the wild creatures about him are 

 at variance ! Those that are domesticated and precluded 

 from obtaining food but by his permission, have their 

 welfare in part identified with his they may share in 

 his abundance, or pine from his parsimony ; but the In- 

 dependents of the field are differently circumstanced. 

 The appearance of these chaffers, in any numbers, is 

 very uncertain and partial, but in those summers when 

 they abound, very extensive injuries frequently ensue. 

 In the grub state, they will entirely destroy the pastures 

 where they inhabit, by consuming the roots of the grass- 

 es ; acres and fields are deprived of their produce, be- 

 coming brown as stubbles, with only a sprig or tuft of 

 green useless vegetation observable in them ; the grain 

 crop likewise totally fails when the larva? of this chaffer 

 feeds in the field. Upon assuming their winged state, 

 they devour the foliage of the oak and other trees so 

 effectually, that entire copses may be seen early in June 

 defoliated by their depredations. So much for their in- 

 jury to man : but now the feast of the wilding com- 

 mences the plow in April dislodges multitudes of 

 these long white grubs. Dogs then seek them eagerly 

 to eat, but they seem to be surfeited by the food ; for, 

 though fattened at first, they afterwards become dis- 

 eased, and lose their hair. Rooks and crows are run- 

 ning over the ridges, busily seeking for this larvae ; the 

 swine find it out, and come in for their share* and hav- 

 ing finished here, they commence grubbing in the 

 grass lands. The insect now soon takes wing, and then 

 every tree in the wood or the brake becomes a scene 

 of plunder and delight to all the train from the rookery 

 -the cats will eat him every sparrow that flies by has 

 a chaffer in its mouth, captured on the wing or snatched 

 from the spray, and now to be pecked to pieces on the 



