154 
The Balance of Nature . 
[April, 
Protection A< 5 t of 1872.” Before this SeleCt Committee 
appeared Mr. Groome Napier, and gave, as quoted by Mr. 
Morant, the following most extraordinary evidence : — “ The 
beetles (Coleoptera) are immensely numerous as regards 
species. They live from three to four years in the larvae 
state. The first year they do not do a great deal of damage. 
The second year they attack the roots of all plants within 
their reach ; they often ruin the crops of corn, lucerne, &c., 
on which man depends for food.” We can only hope that 
some qualifying clause has been overlooked by Mr. Morant. 
Surely both he and Mr. Groome Napier ought to know that, 
numerous as are the beetles in species, multitudes of them, 
such as the common ground-beetles (Cicindelidas, Carabidse, 
&c.) and the water-beetles, are, in all stages of their ex- 
istence, purely carnivorous. The larvae of others, such as 
the dung-beetles (Geotrupidae and their allies), feed upon 
the dung of animals buried in the ground by the parent 
inseCt as a supply for its offspring. Others, again, both in 
their preparatory stage and when mature, nourish them- 
selves upon putrid animal matter. The larvae of the long- 
horns and Buprestids feed on timber, and the weevils — 
noxious as many of them are — in the buds and fruits of 
trees. In short, it may be safely maintained that not one- 
tenth of the species of Coleoptera destroy the roots of 
plants ; and Mr. Groome Napier, if he has really used the 
language here quoted, without any saving clause, grievously 
slanders a multitude of beings, many of which are the most 
faithful allies of the farmer and gardener.* We think that 
Charles Waterton would neither have written such a 
passage nor quoted it, excepting with the intention of in- 
flicting a severe castigation upon its author. But whilst 
Mr. Morant agrees with the worthy Squire of Walton Hall 
as to the importance of small birds in rurul economy, he 
dissents from him altogether as to the causes of their de- 
crease and as to the means to be taken for their preservation. 
Waterton considers that the worst enemy of the feathered 
tribes is man, and especially that variety of man known in 
modern England as gamekeepers. These he pronounces to 
be “ privileged scourges of animated nature,” “unrelenting 
butchers of our finest and rarest British birds.” Mr. Morant, 
* Not being quite sure at the moment whether Mr. Groome Napier was to 
be regarded as a naturalist or as a sportsman, we turned to our General 
Index, and found that he is the author of a work entitled the “ Book of 
Nature and of Man,” from which we extract the following passage : — “ They 
(lichens) have a strong resemblance to cancers ( Morbus Brightii), if they are 
not to be classed together.” Cancer a synonym for Morbus Brightii ! 
