252 HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 



fact which we deem to be due to the indiscriminate 

 slaughter of small birds, more especially the black- 

 bird, thrush, and lark, which are their most deter- 

 mined enemies. As farmers, we might well afford 

 them a dessert of small fruit for the good they do in 

 destroying slugs and snails. 



6. Hedge-row shrubs are liable to be injured by 

 many insects, more especially the caterpillars of dif- 

 ferent kinds of moths and butterflies, which some- 

 times eat away all their leaves, and so greatly retard 

 the growth of the hedge. Upon this subject we quote 

 from " Our Woodlands, Heaths, and Hedges," for the 

 purpose of introducing to our readers a small book by 

 W. S. Coleman, which should be in the hands of all 

 country readers : — 



The foliage of the hawthorn, remarkable for its elegance, is tlie 

 chosen food of a great number of interesting insects, principally the 

 caterpillars of various lepidoptera. 



Several species of these are of a gregarious nature, living together 

 in extensive colonies under a thick net-work of silk, which serves 

 them for a common protection while feeding on the fuliage enclosed 

 ■with themselves in a silken tent. 



Among these social net-weavers are the caterpillars of a fine insect, 

 the black-veined white butterfly (Pieris cratcegi), a rarity in some 

 districts, but in certain localities, and at certain periods, abounding 

 to such an extent as entirely to strip the hawthorn hedges of their 

 foliage. Similar depredations are committed by the gaily-coloured 

 progeny of the common lackey moth, and of the gold-tailed and 

 brown-tailed moths ; but the most formidable devastators, though 

 the tiniest individually, are the little ermine moths {Yponomentoi), 

 small silvery-gi-ey creatures, minutely spotted with black. The 

 curious twig-like caterpillars of the brimstone moth (a pretty canary- 

 coloured creature, with brown markings), and of several other 

 geometers, are common upon hawthorn. 



Last summer (1861), the hawthorn trees and hedges 

 about the parks and squares of London were entirely 



