Nature's Militia 335 



which it carries off on its prickles (!), can hardly, one 

 would think, be seriously believed. 



Another much-persecuted creature is the mole ; and 

 yet the mole is always eating wire-worm and the like, 

 doing its very best for ungrateful man ; for its appetite 

 is voracious, and it is quite unable to survive even a 

 short fast. The mole is not without his admirers, 

 however, in spite of his certainly trying way of throw- 

 ing up hillocks, and one of his friends says : ' As surely 

 as the farmer destroys the mole, so will he have in ex- 

 change wire-worm and turnip-fly.' 



Insects are, as a whole, such enemies of vegetation 

 that we are apt to condemn them in a body. Yet 

 besides the many which convey pollen there are a few 

 others which deserve honourable mention, and even 

 the name of friends. These few are positive bene- 

 factors, for they leave the green things alone themselves 

 and prey upon other mischievous insects. 



Among these insect-friends is the lady-bird, to whom, 

 as an American writer says, ' we should take off our 

 hats,' for it destroys those terrible pests, thrips and 

 green-fly. 



Wasps carry off flies and caterpillars to feed their 

 young grubs; and some species of jchneumon-fly 

 deposit their eggs in the chrysalids of moths and 

 butterflies, as well as in grubs and caterpillars, thereby 

 killing them. But of all insects, perhaps some of the 

 beetles are the most useful, for, both in the grub and 

 in the winged state, they catch and devour living prey. 



To sum up : without insects many plants would be 

 unable to produce seed, and so must in time die out ; 

 without the small birds, insects woqld increase so 



