firby: birds v. insects. 



331 



Occurrence ofGonoptera Uhatrix at Eudder s field— hX the meeting of the Huddersfield 

 Naturalists' Society, held on Saturday, March 3rd, Mr. John Varley exhibited Gono])- 

 tera Uhatrix, caught at Bradley Mills, among Logwood, by E. Tindall, Jun., on the 

 21st of February last. This seems to be a rare capture in this district. The moth was 

 a female, and has dex>osited a number of ova which Mr, Yarley expects to rear. — 

 J. Tindall, Huddersfield, March 10th, 1866. 



BIRDS VERSUS INSECTS. 



By E. E. Firby, E.E.A.S., E.A.S.L., E.E.S., &c. 



That we may the better understand the importance of birds to mankind, 

 let us examine the lives and habits of these little creatures, and the position 

 assigned to them in the marvellous economy of nature. A simple and general 

 survey of their organization and mode of existence will at once show us that 

 the orders of birds the daily and principal food of which is drawn chiefly, if 

 not entirely, from the animal world, are those which exist both in the great- 

 est numbers and the greatest variety. In Germany and Svvdtzerland one 

 hundred and fifty different species are known, some sedentary, others more or 

 less nomadic. The most numerous order of all is that of the Insectivora, 

 which includes the warbler, Sylvia hortensis, the willow wren, Sylvia trocM- 

 lus, Lath., the stonechut Sylvia ruhicola, the lark, Alauda arvemis, the Alpine 

 warbler Accentor alpinus, the wagtail, Motacilla, the field lark, Anthus 

 arhoreus, the great titmouse, Parus major, the spotted flycatcher, Muscicapa 

 grisola, the thrush. Tardus musicas, the great cinereous shrike, Lanlus 

 excubitor, — the order numbering altogether more than eighty species. Eew 

 of these eat vegetable food, by far the larger number living exclusively upon 

 animal food. The next most numerous order — that of the Palmixjede^, — of 

 which there are about forty species (some of which are rarely seen in this 



