Hillside. 123 



We leave the flower-bordered road and follow a narrow 

 footpath over a turnip field. In the field the rooks are busy ; 

 they are probably clearing off the caterpillars of some insect 

 pests, and so are doing incalculable good to the farmer. Let 

 us see what it is that they are after. There is a turnip just 

 pulled up, and underneath it are numerous grubs of a dirty- 

 white colour, looking almost exactly like the soil itself. 

 These are the caterpillars of the Turnip moth; they are 

 plump and well fed, but their similarity to the soil will not 

 enable them to escape the keen eye of the rook. In a few 

 days these birds will devour thousands of the grubs, which 

 often exist in such numbers as to constitute a veritable 

 plague. 



It is very important to have an accurate knowledge of 

 insect life, for insects may be productive either of good or 

 evil; and if we have not this knowledge, we may destroy the 

 former kind and preserve the latter. For example, lady- 

 birds prey on the aphides which do so much injury to our 

 hops and our fruit, and yet it is no unusual sight to see 

 ignorant labourers destroying them, either with or instead of 

 the aphides which they are paid to exterminate. 



The path soon brings us to the edge of a wood, along 

 which it continues for a short distance. The northern ridge 

 of the hills is no longer in sight ; the green of the woodside 

 is occasionally tinted with the very earliest reddening berries 

 of the dogwood and bramble, and the harmonious blending of 

 this colour with the different shades of green produces a very 

 charming effect. To our left the field still slopes towards ' 

 another portion of the wood, wherein are majestic oaks and 

 graceful birches surrounded by a thick and dense under- 

 growth, save where, here and there, a clearing has been 



