136 



FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



that hundreds of such tunnels are rendered tenant- 

 less each day by means of thrushes, starlings, and 

 other worm-eating birds, which prowl about lawns, 

 gardens, and meadows, picking out the earth- 

 worms as fast as they show their noses above the 

 level of the soil ; while hundreds more are made 



desolate by 

 moles and cen- 

 tipedes. There 

 is thus never 

 any lack of 

 empty burrows 

 which the ear- 

 wig can appro- 

 priate, as the 

 hermit-crab ap- 

 propriates the 

 empty shells of 

 whelks and peri- 

 winkles. 



In No. 17 we 

 see the mother 

 earwig safely 

 installed in a 

 nice under- 

 ground nest, 



and sitting like a hen on the eggs she has de- 

 posited within it. You can dig up such nests 

 and eggs in any garden in January and February. 

 Mr. Knock tells me he sometimes finds them at 

 a depth of six inches. The average number of 

 eggs in a brood runs from fifty to sixty. The 



NO. II. THE WINGS THEMSELVES CAN 



GO NO FURTHER; so 



