Wild Birds in Belation to Agriculture. 835 
You must be up soon after dawn, if you wish to see “ the early 
bird get the first worm ! ” 
The statement * * as to the reproductive power of insects by 
Mr. Groom Napier, is most suggestive. He refers to the great 
prices given even then for wild birds’ eggs, prices showing 
scarcity verging on extinction of species. In 1782 the South of 
England was ravaged by moths, the caterpillars of the brown- 
tail moth (Porihemi auriflna) ; the alarm Avas so great that 
prayers were offered in church. 
One of the greatest friends of the farmer is the family of 
ichneumon flies — predaceous insects — which destructively lay 
their eggs in the bodies of living caterpillars. Here I must 
interpolate a charming passage from Gilbert White; ^ — 
“ I saw lately a small ichneumon fly attack a spider much larger than 
itself on a grass walk. When the spider made any resistance, the ichneumon 
applied her tail to him and stung him with great A-ehemence, so that he 
soon became dead and motionless. The ichneumon then running backward 
drew her prey very nimbly over the walk into the standing grass. This 
spider would be deposited in some hole where the ichneumon would lay 
some eggs ; and as soon as the eggs were hatched, the carcase would aflbrd 
ready food for the maggots. Perhaps some eggs might be injected into the 
body of the spider in the act of stinging. Some ichneumons deposit their 
eggs in the aurelia of moths and butterflies.’ ” 
To return, Mr. Napier concludes thus : an extensive diffusion 
of information on the habits and means of destroying our 
noxious insects would be a means of saving many million 
pounds’-Avorth annually of valuable food otherwise lost to the 
community. Could 100,000 copies of a good and very cheap 
woi’k on the insects injurious to agriculture be circulated, I 
believe it Avould do much to add to the resources of the country. 
The United States Government is far more alive to the im- 
portance of this subject than Ave are. Almost every State has 
a Government entomologist, Avhose business it is to make in- 
spections and reports of the raA'ages of insects, and their 
prevention or cure. 
That learned ornithologist, the rector of Nunburnholme, 
handed in a connected statement which, like eA^erything he 
writes on oniithology, is of the greatest interest. I regret that 
my space allows only of one quotation : “ The rats and mice have 
increased to a fearful extent. Every weasel and every owl is 
trapped, if not shot — the farmer’s very best friends. I counted 
no less than fifty-four of these useful animals, the stoats and 
weasels, nailed up on the gamekeeper’s gallows-tree. The mice 
’ Appendix, p. 169. 
* Natural History of Selhorne : Observations on Insects and Vermes, 
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