S64 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
I.APR1I- 6, igoi. 
/mmense. An observer in writing of these insects states 
that "Each termite colony is founded by a fruitful pair, 
called the king and the queen, who are placed in a cham- 
ber devoted to their sole use and from which they never 
stir when once inclosed. These insects produce a vast 
quantity of eggs, from which are hatched remaining mem- 
bers of the colony, consisting of neuters of both sexes, 
the females being termed 'workers' and the males 'sol- 
diers,' the latter being distinguished by their enormous 
heads and powerful jaws; of larvje of two forms, some 
of which will be fully developed and others pass all 
their lives in the worker or soldier condition; of purpse 
of two forms, and, lastly, of male and female perfect in- 
sects, which are destined to found fresh colonies. 
"The neuters of either sex are without wings; the 
king and queen are chosen from a large number of perfect 
insects, and when the selection is made they are im- 
prisoned in a cell, from which they are not permitted to 
escape, although an aperture is left which is sufficiently 
wide to permit the ingress and egress of the other termites. 
After a short time the body of the female increases pro- 
digiously in size, becoming three or four inches in length 
and nearly two inches in diameter; all this while the 
head, thorax and legs retain their natural size. 
"One can imagine how strange the form becomes as 
she progres.ses in maturity. At length she begins to de- 
posit the eggs, which are dropped at the rate of eighty 
"How do you know that?" was asked. 
"I will show you," he replied, moving on, In a few 
minutes they came to a precipitous rock, where there was 
a large bronze hook or bolt in the rock. "There is where 
the Romans made fast their galleys in the old times," said 
the guide. 
"No better illustration of the evil effects upon rivers 
of cutting down the forests as they have been cut down 
in Spain, where hills have been denuded of them, could 
be given," was Mr. Saltonstall's comment on this inter- 
esting incident. 
As I have already stated, the Te?£tent of the injuries that 
are annually inflicted by insects upon agriculture is enor- 
mous. 
Many years ago this damage was estimated by compe- 
tent authorities to be over $20,000,000 in the United States, 
and it undoubtedly is now at least doirble that amount. 
Every crop suffers in greater or less -degree, and it is 
unquestionably the fact that the products of the farm 
are lessened in value every year at least one-tenth by the 
pests which destroy them. 
Fortunately, as I said before, nature has provided agents 
to keep the pests in subjection, and it is, therefore, of 
great importance that the farmer should be able to recog- 
nize them and learn to appreciate the work they are doing 
for his benefit. Among these active agents are included a 
number of species of mammals, most of our birds, many 
COMMON BROWN BAT (VespertiHo carolinensis) . 
Three-fifths natural size. 
thousand a day. These are at once removed by the 
workers and placed in suitable places in the nest, where 
they are looked after until the larvae are hatched." 
The termites are sometimes a sad pest; it has been 
stated that nothing, unless cased in metal, can resist their 
jaws, and they have been known to destroy the whole 
woodwork of a house in a single season, and this with- 
out the mischief being discovered until it was too late 
to remedy it. They work in darkness and out of sight. 
Instances are numerous of their boring through the boards 
of a floor and tunneHng the legs of tables, chairs, etc., 
leaving nothing but a mere shell no thicker than paper, 
which crumbles to pieces. A householder has on more 
than one occasion had his chair fall to pieces beneath 
him, or his staircase crumble to dust as he tried to 
ascend it. 
Sometimes the nests of the termites in the forest are 
so numerous and so large in size, their height being 
often from ten to twenty feet, that they have the ap- 
pearance of a native village, the nest being covered with a 
triple roofed dome, which is strong enough to support 
the weight of an ox. 
"There is one thing to be said in favor of the ants," 
said Phoebe, after a short pause; "they do no injury to 
the farmer — at least I never heard that they do." 
"No," I replied ; "on the contrary they are beneficial to 
a considerable extent, for they often overpower and kill 
some of the more noxious species. And it is well that this 
is the case, for the ants are very numerous, and if they 
were inclined to be mischievous they could do consider- 
able damage. The farmer has a hard struggle at the 
best, and his crops become less profitable and his enemies 
increase as the years roll on." 
"Yes," said Mrs. Murray; "it seems to me that the 
injurious insects are increasing every yeaT, and the far- 
mer is obliged to fight them all the time," 
"Yes," I responded; "the aggregate of injury done by 
insects in direct money loss is enormous, and if it were 
■ not for the beneficial species of birds, mammals and 
predacious insects man could not exist." 
The multiplication of injurious insects is traceable far 
back and to the action of man himself. Humboldt has 
said that wherever man appears on the earth he provides 
the conditions for his own extinction in the destruction 
of forests. The wisdom of this statement is not generally 
appreciated, but the great scientist was right, and we 
already find as some of the results which have followed 
that destruction the drying up of rivers, droughts with 
their attendant failure of crops, the loss of fertility of 
lands and, as before stated, the enormous increase of 
insects, which, "deprived of their natural food by the 
removal of forest trees and shru1)s and the other indigenous 
plants that once covered the soil, have now no other re- 
sources than the cultivated plants that have taken the 
place of the original vegetation," (Dr. Harris.) 
The superficial observer cannot readily see why cutting 
down the forests causes the rivers to dry up, but that such 
is the case has been' noted time and again, and it is now 
a well-recognized fact. 
A most interesting example of the effect on the volume 
of rivers and rainfall by the destruction of forests has 
been recorded by the late Hon. Leverett Saltonstall, of 
Boston. He was riding on horseback through Andalusia 
in . Spain, accompanied by a very intelligent peasant, who 
had been Washington Irving's guide when he was writ- 
ing his books, "The Alhambra" and "The Conquest of 
Granada." He was an old man, and as they were riding 
along the bed of a brook, which was perfectly dry. Mr. 
Saltonstall said, "Does water ever flow here, Manuel?" 
"No," he replied, "except in winter, and then it is a 
torrent. It used to be a river in old times, as long ago as 
when the Romans were here." 
of our familiar reptiles and myriads of rapacious insects; 
the efficiency of all these is increased by the manner in 
which each, while working in its own sphere, supplements 
the labors of the others. 
Among our insectivorous mammals none are more 
familiar to all than the bats. These interesting little ani- 
mals destroy immense numbers of moths and other in- 
jurious insects, and, subsisting as they do upon nocturnal 
species, which would probably elude the birds, they are 
of the greatest value to the agriculturi t. 
They are constantly busy every night, darting about in 
all directions in pursuit of their prey, and this work is 
continued through the summer, as long as there are in- 
sects on the wing. Now, manifestly, in such a climate 
as ours for half the year, at least,, the food supply of 
FLYING FOX OR VLOvss-ETTE (Pterapus ntbrkolHs) . 
these insect-eaters fails. Are they then to starve? Cer- 
tainly not. Nature has provided against that contingency, 
for when cold weather approaches they conceal themselves 
in old buildings, caves and hollow trees, where they 
hibernate through the winter. 
These animals occasionally fly into dwelling houses, 
where they sometimes cause no little alarm. They are 
harmless, however, and far from deserving the rough 
reception that is often given them. 
Occasionally a female bat is captured in one of ;these 
visits with a young one clinging to its body. This habit 
is common to all the species, the young being carried about 
by the mother, clinging to her breast until they are old^ 
enough to wean. - , - - 
We cannot but admire this example of nattlre's Svise 
provision for the continuance of the species, fbr' oiir 
bats, as a rule, have no permanent home, and they lodge, 
during the day wherever they may chance to be. Now, in 
such a wandering life if some such provision for the 
care of the young were not made, they would starve, for 
the chances would be against the parent returning to the 
place where the young were born. She therefore carries 
them about with her, and they are thus protected against 
all chance of being lost or destroyed. There- are over 
four hundred species of bats known to science, and they 
vary in size from the enormous flying foxes or roussettes, 
which are as large as a small dog and which subsist on 
fruits, to the little red bat of America which is not much 
larger than a wren. ' 
Bats are not uninteresting as pets ; on several occa" 
sions I have kept them in confinement, and they afforded 
me good opportunities for studying their habits. During 
the day time they remained perfectly still, their little eyes 
shut, their wings folded, hanging head downward from 
their perch, suspended by the sharp claws of their hind 
feet. 
If they were disturbed during the day, they opened 
their mouths, which bristled with fine teeth and emitted 
a chattering melancholy little shriek. If a fly or other 
insect or small piece of meat was put in their mouth, they 
quickly swallowed it, after masticating it a little. If much 
disturbed they left their perch, and, after flying about the 
room for a few moments, again alighted on another con- 
venient resting place. The vision of these animals is, in 
daylight, very defective; they are almost entirely nocturnal 
in their habits; but when flying about the room, though 
there were many objects hanging from the walls and 
chairs and tables and other pieces of furniture were 
scattered around, not once have I Icnown a bat to strike 
against them or against the walls or ceiling; they were 
guided entirely by their exquisite sense of hearing and 
by that touch in the sensitive membrane of their wings. 
When twilight commenced my pets were all activity, and 
through the greater part of the night seemed busily en- 
, gaged in catching the flies that were on the ceiling and 
walls of the room. If a lamp were lighted they generally, 
after a few moments of nervous flight, reoccupied their 
perches, but if all was still they soon resumed their hunt 
for insects. 
Notwithstanding I have had several of these animals at 
different times, and have kept them through a period of 
five or six weeks, I have never been able to detect any 
considerable amount 'of intelligence in them. After a 
while they became accustomed to being handled, and would 
lie passively in my hand. I think that they were able to 
recognize me from a stranger, as they seemed less un- 
easy when handled by myself; but as for affection, they 
seemed entirely devoid of it. Other animals when fed 
and cared for will in time recognize their keeper and 
seem pleased at his company. I have known a gray 
squirrel to really pine for my company after having been 
in my possession but a few days, and have known a flying 
squirrel to recognize its keeper and approach him with 
manifestations of pleasure at the fifth or sixth day after 
its capture ; btit the bats seem to have no desire to make 
friends, and are as well contented td be in the possession 
of one person as another. . - 
Another beneficial animal on the farm is the mole, Of 
which we have two species — the common and the star-' 
nosed mole. Although it is generally believed that earth 
worms are almost their exclusive diet, there is no doubt 
that they eat great numbers of cut worms and the larvEe 
of the destructive beetle known as the June beetle or Dor 
beetle, that familiar insect which enters our lighted rooms 
in the evening and startles every one with its noisy buzzing 
as it flies around. The grub of this beetle, a fat yellowish- 
white grub that is often turned up by. the plough, is 
among the worst pests of the farm, destroying as it some- 
times does whole fields of mowing lands by eating the 
roots of the grasses. 
It has been stated that a mole can dig through the 
ground much faster than a man can shovel after it, and 
I have no doubt of the correctness of the statement, for 
its strong forepaws, armed as they are with long, sharp 
chisel-shaped claws, enable it to burrow very rapidly. 
The home nest of the mole is a curious affair, being 
constructed with two galleries or sections, which are 
connected by a number of passages. The star-nosed mole 
is an odd looking little animal, its nose or proboscis being 
surrounded by a fringe of tentacles or rays which ft can 
expand or contract at will. 
The moles are pugnacious little creatures', and when two 
males meet, the fight which is almost sure to ensue usu- 
ally ends in the death of one or both of the combatants. 
The opinion is often expressed that these animals have 
no eyes, but this is an error; they have eyes, very small 
ones, of course, and they are buried in the dense fur on 
their head, for in the subterranean life they lead their 
organs of -vision need to be but poorly developed; their 
sense of hearing is, however, very acute. There are other 
mammals which are insectivorous, among which are the 
weasel, raccoon, skunk, etc., but their unfortunate pro- 
pensity for devouring birds and their eggs and young 
neutralizes in a great measure the benefits they confer. 
Among birds there are a great many insect-destroying 
species, and as a class they are nearly all beneficial. So 
valuable is their work that it has been saSj of them that 
had they not been created man could not exist. Different 
species seem to have been formed expressly for destroying 
insects at different points, and in different stages of ex- 
istence. For example, the thrushes prey upon the larvae 
and imagos of insects that are found on the ground : the 
flycatchers and sylvias or warblers seize the species which 
hover in the lower air; the woodpeckers kill the grubs of 
boring beetles in the bark and wood of trees ; the creepers 
and titmice eat the eggs and small insects that hide in the 
bark and foliage of shrubs and trees, and the swallows 
and swifts flying in the upper air seize the moths and 
other injurious species which have escaped these other 
enemies, and at night the night hawks, Avhippoorwills and 
small owls capture the large moths which are abroad only 
in the nocturnal hours. 
There are a great many species of insects' which destroy 
the Injurious varieties. Among these the dragon flies are 
constantly at work through the summer, and as the in- 
sects they kill are among the most noxious species they 
should be spared by the farmer on all occasions instead 
of being killed at every opportunity. These insects are 
popularly known as the "devil's darning needles," and 
are regarded by country people as injurious, but they 
are among the best friends that nature has given the 
farmer. 
