164 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



showing his skill, and for the most gratifying part of his diversion. The 

 case-worm and several other larvae are the best standing bait for many 

 fish. The larva of the Ephemera, there called bait and bank-bait 1 , is 

 much used in some parts of Holland. The case-worms, and grubs (I 

 suppose of flies) from the tallow-chandlers, and the larvae of wasps taken 

 out of the comb,, are in request with us for roach and dace ; and I am told 

 by an acute observer of these things, the Rev. R. Sheppard, that the 

 Geotrupes and Melolonthce are good baits for chub. 2 But to be an adept 

 in fly-fishing, which requires the most skill and furnishes the best di- 

 version, the angler ought to be conversant in Entomology, at least suffi- 

 ciently so to distinguish the different species of Phryganea and other Tri- 

 choptera, and to know the time of their appearance. The angler is not 

 only indebted to insects for some of his best baits, but also for the best 

 material to fasten his hooks to, and even for making his lines for smaller 

 fish the Indian grass or gut, as it is called (termed in France Cheveux de 

 Florence), which is said to be prepared in China from the matter con- 

 tained in the silk reservoirs of the silk-worm, but according to Latreille is 

 the silk vessel itself when dried. 3 



One of the most important ends for which insects were gifted with such 

 powers of multiplication, giving birth to myriads of myriads of individuals, 

 was to furnish the feathered part of the creation with a sufficient supply 

 of food. The number of birds that derive the whole or a principal part 

 of their subsistence from insects is, as is universally known, very great, 

 and includes species of almost every order. 



Amongst the Accipitres the kestril (Falco tmnunculus L.) devours 

 abundance of insects. A friend of mine, upon opening one, found its 

 stomach full of the remains of grasshoppers and beetles, particularly the 

 former, which he suspects constitute great part of the food of this species. 

 One of the shrikes, also, or butcher-birds (Lanius collurio) and it is pro- 

 bable that other species of this numerous genus may have the same habits 

 is known to feed upon insects, which it first impales alive on the thorns 

 of the sloe and other spinous plants, and then devours. If meat be given 

 it, when kept in a cage, it will fix it upon the wires before it eats it. 

 Lanius excubitor also impales insects ; but Heckewelder denies that it 

 feeds upon them. If he be correct, the object of this singular procedure 

 with that species may be to allure the birds which it preys upon to a 

 particular spot. 4 



Amongst the Picas or Pies the Crotophaga, called the Ani, which is a 



* Swamm. Sib. Nat i. c. 4. 106. b. 



2 In Col. Venable's Experienced Angler, a vast number of insects are enumerated 

 as t;ood baits for fish, under the names of Sob, Cadbait, Cankers^ Caterpillars, Pal- 

 mers. Gentles, Barkworms, Oak-worms, Colewort-worms, Flag-worms, Green-flies, 

 Ant-flies, Sutterflies, Wasps, Hornets, Sees, Humble-bees, Grasshoppers, Dors, 

 Beetles, a great brown fly that lives upon the oak like a Scarabee (Melolontha vul- 

 garis, or Amphimalla solstitialis ?), and flies (i. e. May-flies) of various sorts. See also 

 Mr. Ronalds' Fly-fisher's Entomology. 



s Anderson's Recreations in Agricult. &c. iv. 478. ; Latr. Hist. Nat. xiv. 154. 



4 According to Mr. Heckewelder (Trans. Amer. Phil Soc. iv. 124.), L. excubitor, 

 called in America the nine-killer, from an idea that it transfixes nine individuals 

 daily, treats in this manner Grasshoppers only ; while L. collurio would seem to 

 restrict itself chiefly to Geotrupes, two of which Mr. Sheppard once observed trans- 

 fixed in a hedge that he knew to be the residence of this bird. Kugellan even 



