WILD NATURE. 
147 
It is a very great pleasure to me to find that, by supplying 
suitable food for various birds and animals, and b}' insuring 
their immunity from disturbance, the number and variety of 
species increases yearly. I touch upon this subject in the hope 
that many lovers of nature may adopt these methods of winning 
the friendship of the interesting creatures that live around us in 
the country. 
During the arctic cold of the past winter I was much kept 
indoors and, wishing still to carry on nature study, I turned my 
attention to various moths and other insects which we see in our 
houses, but' whose life history is little known to us. My studies 
began thus. 
On a bracket in my cellar a cork had lain for some months ; 
on trying to remove it I found it was somehow attached to the 
bracket. I brought a candle, and on examining the cork I found 
it was mined with little holes, the work of a small white grub 
which had also fastened the cork to the bracket by strong silken 
threads. Of the same silk this grub had spun a small cradle or 
cell in which it was lying. I could but think, “ Now, here is a 
life history going on of which I have no knowledge, but I must 
try and find out what the creature can be.” 
My books on natural history gave me no clue, so I wTote to 
my wine-merchant on the subject. He replied by saying that 
he had lost thousands of bottles of wine owing to these grubs, 
which he knew to be the larvae of a small moth, but of which in 
twenty-five years’ experience he had never seen the perfect insect. 
He had, however, written to a Spanish merchant, who would call 
and give me further information. This gentleman brought me 
some corks injured by this moth, and the name of which is 
Oinophila V-flava. It is hatched about April and May, and is 
frequently found in dry cellars, where it seeks for bottles which 
are not protected by wax or metal capsules, and lays its eggs in 
the corks. Out of these eggs are hatched white grubs which 
bore down through the cork until they reach the saccharin. It 
is on this that they feed, but in consequence of their tunnels the 
air reaches the wine and turns it sour and useless. Indeed if 
they penetrate far enough, the holes allow the wine to escape, 
and we find half empty bottles. The Oinophila is apt to select 
old sweet wine, this therefore needs special protection from the 
destructive pest. My next step was to visit the Natural History 
Museum, where by the kindness of Sir William Flower I was 
allowed to see specimens of the moth, and I found the species to 
be hardly larger than a gnat. 
I find the common fur and feather moth also destroys corks 
in a similar way, and I have been informed of one instance in 
which it destroyed a ham by laying its eggs and rearing its grubs 
in it, but I think this needs verifying. I suggested that it must 
have been the work of the bacon-fly, but my informant stood firm 
to the statement that it was the work of the aforesaid moth ; if 
so, it must be a remarkable grub which can adapt itself to feed 
upon such dissimilar things as cork, fur, feathers and ham. 
