FOOD OF ANIMALS AND BIEDS. 29 



They frequently enter houses in the night, apparently attract- 

 ed, as well as dazzled and bewildered, by the lights. Their 

 vagaries, in which, without having the power to harm, they 

 seem to threaten an attack, have caused them to be called 

 dors, — that is, darers ; while their seeming blindness and 

 stupidity have become proverbial, in the expressions, " blind 

 as a beetle," and " beetle-headed." 



Besides the leaves of fruit-trees, they devour those of 

 various forest-trees and shrubs, with an avidity not much 

 less than that of the locust, so that, in certain seasons, and 

 in particular districts, they become an oppressive scourge, 

 and the source of much misery to the inhabitants. Mouffet 

 relates that, in the year 1574, such a number of them fell 

 into the river Severn as to stop the wheels of the water-mills ; 

 and, in the Philosophical Transactions, it is stated, that in 

 the year 1688 they filled the hedges and trees of Galway, 

 in such infinite numbers as to cling to each other like bees 

 when swarming ; and, when on the wing, darkened the air, 

 annoyed travellers, and produced a sound like distant drums. 

 In a short time the leaves of all the trees, for some miles 

 round, were so totally consumed by them, that at midsummer 

 the country wore the aspect of the depth of winter. 



Another chafer, Anomala vitis F. is sometimes exceedingly 

 injurious to the vine. It prevails in certain provinces of 

 France, where it strips the vines of their leaves, and also 

 devours those of the willow, poplar, and fruit-trees. 



The animals and birds appointed to check the ravages of 

 these insects are, according to Latreille, the badger, weasel, 

 marten, bats, rats, the common dung-hill fowl, and the goat- 

 sucker or night-hawk. To this list may be added the com- 

 mon crow, which devours not only the perfect insects, but 

 their larvae, for which purpose it is often observed to follow 

 the plough. In " Anderson's Recreations "it is stated, that 

 " a cautious observer, having found a nest of five young lays* 

 remarked that each of these birds, while yet very young, 

 consumed at least fifteen of these full-sized grubs in one day, 



