ONE INSECT CHECKS ANOTHER. 247 



largely cultivated for the sake of their bark. In 

 the years 1875 to 1877, the oak flea beetle in- 

 creased in such numbers that they stripped every 

 bud off the oak trees, so that no green leaf could 

 be seen. 



But in this same district the year 1878 was a 

 cockchafer year, which occurs, as you have read, in 

 certain districts every four or five years. When 

 the oak buds were developing in April the cock- 

 chafer left the ground and attacked the buds and 

 unfolding leaves. These insects ate every single 

 thing, buds, leaves, etc., leaving the trees bare. 

 Then the flea beetle appeared on the oak 

 branches, but the cockchafers had forestalled 

 them, and eaten all the flea beetle's food, and so 

 the flea beetle died of starvation. The cockchafer 

 was the means of destroying the flea beetle, and 

 thus brought the plague to an end. 



Certain animals and birds are very useful to 

 the former in eating the destructive insects- 

 Moles, Shrews, Hedgehogs, Bats ; insect-eating 

 birds, namely, Cuckoos, Swallows, Swifts, Goat 

 Sucker, Tree Creeper, Nuthatch, Wren ; all sharp- 

 beaked singing birds Nightingale, Redstart, 

 Robin ; all Grasshopper- Warblers, Linnet, Wag- 

 tail, Peewit, Goldcrest, and all the Tits. The 

 following are mostly beneficial : Hedgehog, Mole, 

 Thrush, Starling, Chaffinch. 



