THE OAK. 



37 



short time the leaves of all the forest-trees for 

 some miles were destroyed, leaving the trees as 

 bare and desolate in the middle of summer as they 

 would have been in winter; they also entered the 

 gardens, and attacked the fruit-trees in the same 

 manner. Their multitudes spread so exceedingly, 

 that they infested houses, and became exceedingly 

 offensive and troublesome. They were greedily 

 devoured by the swine and poultry, which watch- 

 ed under the trees for their falling, and became 

 fat on this unusual food ; even the people adopted 

 a mode of dressing them, and used them as food. 

 Towards the end of the summer they disappeared 

 suddenly, and no traces were perceived of them 

 the ensuing year. In the Magazine of Natural 

 History, a story is told of a gentleman, who, find- 

 ing his Oak-trees stripped of their leaves in the 

 middle of summer, suspected some rooks of hav- 

 ing destroyed them. That the Oaks were nearly 

 bare was beyond dispute ; and he had himself 

 seen the rooks settling on them, and pecking away 

 right and left with their bills. War was, there- 

 fore, declared against the rooks ; but, fortunately, 

 before hostilities were commenced, the gentleman 

 was convinced, by some one who knew more of 

 natural history than himself, that the rooks were 

 not in fault : on the contrary, they had only 

 flocked to the trees for the sake of devouring the 

 myriads of Cockchafers, and of the larvae of 

 Moths, which were the real depredators."* 



Among the less injurious insects which frequent 

 the Oak is the Purple Emperor, the most splen- 

 did of the British butterflies. The caterpillar of 



* Loudon, Arbor. Brit., cap. cv. The service performed by tbe 

 rook in destroying the grub of the Cockchafer is well known. 



