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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



thered tribes, we must not lose sight of these 

 circumstances ; and we must also bear in 

 mind, that while they are driven southwards 

 by the cold, they are invited northwards by 

 the returning heat, which brings a supply of 

 food northward while the southward supply 

 is diminishing. 



By far the greater number of migrant birds, 

 whether they come to us in summer or in 

 winter, feed chiefly upon animal matters ; in 

 great part insects, and small animals. The 

 winter, even with us, cuts off the land supply 

 of these to a very great extent. Very many 

 of them die off entirely at the end of the 

 season, and exist during the winter only as 

 eggs, which the parent insects have deposited 

 in the places best adapted for being hatched 

 by the returning season. A vast number of 

 these are deposited on plants ; but they are, 

 generally speaking, too diminutive for being 

 seen by birds, or for affording any consider- 

 able supply of food, even though they were 

 seen. Others exist in the earth, the waters, 

 and the mud at the bottom of the waters, in 

 the state of larvae ; or, as we call them in com- 

 mon language, grubs or caterpillars. It is 

 for the purpose of feeding upon those larvae, 

 that many water-birds quit the north in the 

 winter, and resort to the fens, the pools, the 

 streams, and the oozy banks of the estuaries 

 of rivers in this country. Several individuals 

 hide themselves in the mature state, in holes 

 and crevices ; where they hybernate,or remain 

 inactive, without feeding or motion, during 

 the winter. In short, we can hardly name a 

 situation in which the rudiment or the means 

 of life, in insects and other small animals, is 

 not treasured up during the winter, in order 

 to be ready for the renovating influence of 

 the spring. In severe weather they are all 

 dormant, however, and not to be found by 

 the birds. This is the more complete the 

 higher the latitude, and consequently the 

 colder the winter ; and the display of insect 

 life is long, in proportion to the duration of 

 the summer. 



The number of insects, independently of 

 other small animals which are in concealment 

 during the winter, is immense. Britain, as 

 compared with other countries, has an under 

 rather than an over supply ; and yet the 

 species which have been discovered in the 

 British islands amount to at least ten thou- 

 sand, of which a full third are beetles ; and 

 it is impossible to say how many additional 

 species may yet be discovered. The rapi- 

 dity with. which some of these multiply is 

 beyond all imagination ; and were the facts 

 not well-authenticated, one would not believe 

 them. Of these insects, it is often the very 

 small ones which are most destructive of 

 vegetation ; and the destruction is perpe- 

 trated, not when they are in the perfect or 

 last stage of their bein^, but chiefly when 



they are larvae, or in the first stage from the 

 egg. There are no doubt exceptions to this, 

 but it is the general rule ; and the time when 

 the spring-visiting birds are with us is the 

 great time for those larvae. 



Of creatures so numerous in species, and so 

 utterly countless in individuals, it is not pos- 

 sible to convey any adequate notion here. 

 We may mention, however, the spring exer- 

 tions of a single female of some of the species. 

 The extent of these exertions shows that they 

 must commence their labors betimes in the 

 season. Very many of the colonies of wild 

 bees, which make their nests in holes of the 

 earth, or collections of moss, and which con- 

 struct waxen cells, and collect honey with so 

 much assiduity during the summer, die away; 

 with the exception of a few females, which 

 creep into hiding-places, and remain dormant 

 there till the warmth of the new season calls 

 them forth. These females are, however, 

 left by nature in such a condition that each 

 of them can found a colony and rear a brood. 

 The little creature has to find her own food, 

 to make her nest, to construct cells fit for 

 the hatching of her eggs ; and all this in a 

 very short time, and without the slightest 

 assistance. Generally speaking, however, 

 she succeeds ; and her first care is to rear a 

 working family, which shall farther assist in 

 the labors ; and it is not till the season be 

 somewhat advanced that matured males and 

 females are produced in the nest. The 

 labors of many other insects are as severe as 

 these; and some of their structures are 

 highly curious, far surpassing anything which 

 occurs among the larger animals. 



One of the most singular races are the 

 aphides, which, of different colors, and under 

 different names, infest various species of 

 plants — such as the rose, the cherry, the com- 

 mon bean, and a variety of others. The 

 colonies of these, like those of the last-men- 

 tioned, generally proceed from a single 

 female, or from an egg which produces a 

 single female in the spring. Some idea of 

 the numbers of these little creatures may be 

 formed, when we consider that several species 

 consist of at least twenty successive gene- 

 rations in the course of the summer ; and that. 

 the number of even the fifth generation of 

 these twenty has been ascertained to amount 

 to very nearly six thousand millions. 



Indeed, when we consider that the rudi- 

 ments of insect life, and of that of other small 

 animals, are scattered everywhere over the 

 land, throughout the waters, and upon every- 

 thing which the land produces, we are con- 

 strained to think that this is the portion of 

 nature which is prepared and fitted for the 

 action of the spring. The individuals in all 

 these cases are of comparatively small size ; 

 but this is made up by the amazing fertility 

 and the rapid succession in which the power 



