Animal Helpers 



protected by the birds, our fields may pro- 

 duce their sheaves and our orchards their 

 fruit. 



We will say a few words concerning the 

 habits of these valuable helpers. The bat 

 feeds exclusively on insects. None come 

 amiss to it ; beetles with their hard wing-cases, 

 skinny gnats, plump butterflies — especially 

 those of the twilight — moths and all those 

 destroyers of our cereals, our vines, our 

 fruit-trees, our woollen materials, which 

 attracted by the light come in the evening to 

 burn their wings in our lamps. Who could 

 tell the number of insects destroyed by the 

 bats as they circle round the house ? The 

 prey is so small and the hunter's hunger so 

 insatiable. 



Let us notice what happens on a calm 

 summer evening. Drawn forth by the mild 

 temperature of the twilight, a number of 

 insects leave their retreats and come to play 

 in the air, to seek their food and to pair. It 

 is the time when the large night moths fly 

 hastily from flower to flower, to plunge their 

 long trumpets into the corolla, and to suck 

 the honey ; the time when the gnat, greedy 

 for man's blood, sounds his war-cry in our 

 ears and chooses the most tender point to 



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