THE CHAITINCH. 285 



he would not permit one of Ms servants to scare 

 them away. Eooks, jays, and even sparrows are 

 valuable in destroying various insects and their 

 larvge. The flycatcher, though it deserves its 

 Kentish name of Cherry-sucker, yet is perpetually 

 snappnig at insects on the wing. The swallow 

 tribe even leave the fruits and buds untouched, 

 and destroy myriads of insects ; and the titmice 

 and other birds peer into the crevices on the barks 

 of trees, or among the mosses and grasses, and 

 carry off the creeping things by thousands. We 

 have only to consider how immense is the number 

 of insects, even in our own land, where they are 

 far less numerous than in tropical comitries, and 

 we shall estimate better the instrumentality of the 

 birds. Messrs. Kirby and Spence, after institut- 

 ing a comparison between the numbers of British 

 insects with that of British flowering plants, con- 

 clude, that on the average there are more than six 

 species of insect to each species of vegetable. 

 " If," say they, " we reckon the flowering vege- 

 tables of the globe in round numbers at 100,000 

 species, tlie number of insects would amount to 

 600,000. If we say 400,000 we shall perhaps 

 not be very wide of the truth." If such is the 



