286 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



nearly extirpated, insects increased to such a degree as 

 to cause a total loss of the herbage, and the inhabitants 

 were obliged to obtain hay for their cattle not only from 

 Pennsylvania but even from Great Britain 2 . Of this 

 order also is the bee-cuckoo [Cuculus Indicator) so cele- 

 brated for its instinct, by which it serves as a guide to 

 the wild bees' nests in Africa. Sparrman describes this 

 bird, which is somewhat larger than a common sparrow, 

 as giving this information in a singular manner. In the 

 evening and morning, which are its meal-times, it ex- 

 cites the attention of the Hottentots, colonists, and ho- 

 ney-ratel, by the cry of cherr, cherr, cherr, and conducts 

 them to the tree or spot in which the bees' nest is con- 

 cealed, continually repeating this cry. When arrived 

 at the spot, it hovers over it, and then alighting on some 

 neighbouring tree or bush, sits in silence, expecting to 

 come in for its share of the spoil, which is that part of the 

 comb containing the brood 5 . — The wryneck and the 

 woodpeckers, the nut-hatch and tree-creeper, live en- 

 tirely upon insects which they pick out of decayed trees 

 and out of the bark of living ones. The former also 

 frequents grass-plats and ant-hills, into which it darts 

 its long flexible tongue and so draws out its prey. 

 The woodpecker also draws insects out of their holes by 

 means of the same organ, which for this purpose is bony 

 at the end and barbed, and furnished with a curious ap- 

 paratus of muscles to enable them to throw it forwards 

 with great force. Some species spit the insects on their 

 tongue, and thus bring them into their mouth. In 

 America, the tree-creeper is furnished with a box at the 

 end of a long pole to entice it to build in gardens, which 

 a Bingley, ii. 2S7-29J). b Sparrman, ii. 186, 



