152 SPRING. 



tomers for the lumber. The very scattered manner in 

 which those materials are placed, enables the birds to 

 find their food at the same time that they are per- 

 forming their labour. The earth, too, is full of the 

 eggs and larvae of insects ; so that there is hardly 

 perhaps a root in the ground, even though it has yet 

 showed no stem above the surface, that has not its 

 worm that would attack the young shoot at the 

 moment of its commencement, and thus destroy the 

 whole of the vegetation. There are others, again, 

 that carry on their operations concealed below the 

 surface, and literally mow the fibrous roots of the 

 grasses over the whole extent of a field. 



The grub of the May-chaffer, (Scarabaus melo- 

 lonthd) is one of the most common and most destruc- 

 tive of this class; it appears in numbers that are 

 incredible, and as the same race carry on their de- 

 predations for three or four seasons, it is one of the 

 most destructive of insects. The crown of the root is 

 not the part which this grub attacks, but rather the 

 new fibres which the roots of the perennial grasses 

 put out when the plants begin to stool upon the sur- 

 face, and the appearance of a crop is very promising. 

 As their progress cannot be seen through the course 

 of their operations, one cannot be absolutely certain 

 as to the way in which they go to work ; but as they 

 plunge deeper into the earth in the winter than in the 

 summer, the probability is, that they begin at the 

 lower extremities of the fibres, and eat upwards, and 

 thus work round each root in all directions, till the 

 earth, for the depth of from an inch to two inches, is 

 reduced to the consistence of loose powder, while the 



