EXPERIMENTAL FARMING. 353 



Next in importaiico to birds, arc certain species of reptiles and 

 small quadrupeds ; and lastly, there are predatory insects, that 

 live by the destruction of other species of their tribe. Natural- 

 ists have not generally made this subject their particular study. 

 They have been satisfied with ascertaining the general character 

 of the food of the animal under examination. They are able 

 to inform us that certain birds live u])on insects, others upon 

 seeds, while others are omniverous and birds of prey. The 

 same may be said of their remarks on the food of reptiles and 

 of the smaller quadrupeds. 



Experiments remain to be made with special reference to the 

 comparative importance of each species of birds, reptile and 

 quadruped, as destroyers of these vermin. Which are the most 

 useful and diligent devourers respectively of grubs, of cater- 

 pillars, of chrysalids and of insects in their perfect form ? There 

 is a disposition on the part of the majority of fruit cultivators, to 

 underrate the services of those birds which steal the fruit of 

 our gardens. The common robin comes under their ban on 

 this account. Tlie robin does not hunt the bark of trees for his 

 food, but he devours vast quantities of those injurious grubs 

 that live upon the surface, or near the surface of the ground ; 

 such as the cut-worm, the chrysalids of beetles, and moths, 

 while they are in a feeble and nearly metamorphosed state. All 

 these particulars should be ascertained ; and the birds should 

 be classed according to the description and the value of their 

 services. 



The society should institute a series of investigations to be 

 carried on at their own farm, and should open a correspondence 

 with individuals and other societies, for the purpose of collect- 

 ing authentic information from all foreign sources, in regard to 

 the food of every kind of bird, of the common toad, the tree- 

 toad, and of every species of insectivorous reptile and quadru- 

 ped. Such investigations might lead to very important results, 

 if the superintendent of the farm was a man of ingenious and 

 scientific turn of mind. At the farm should be kept a speci- 

 men of all insects injurious to vegetation, classed as far as they 

 will admit of it, according to the department of vegetation to 

 which they are injurious. Let those which infest the grain form 

 one class, the devourers of the leaves of plants a second, those 

 which are destructive to the wood a third, and so on, according 



