OE INJURIOUS INSECTS. 
39 
service; and the Shrews and Bats, the Slow-worm and the Toad, 
help at the work. The Cuckoo is of especial service from not refusing 
hairy larvae, and the Flycatcher as destroying the white butterflies; 
whilst Bats eat the moths of the surface caterpillars (Noctiue of 
various species), and Shrews prey on beetles. 
Some degree of discrimination is desirable in encouragement of 
Birds, as with regard to Starlings, which are noted as injurious to 
Feeds ; and Books, again, which at times do damage in various ways ; 
but, generally speaking, the encouragement of the Insectivora, whether 
Bird, Beast, or Beptile, would make a very important difference in 
the amount of insect presence. 
I now offer a few remarks with regard to such of the Insects as 
are now first mentioned on the accompanying sheet. 
It is almost impossible to give a description in words (unaccom¬ 
panied by coloured figures or comparison with other specimens) by 
which the species of an insect may be known with certainty, but, 
agriculturally, it is usually the attack taken as a whole, not the 
various species of insects engaged, that is the important matter; and 
from this point of view the attackers are generally only too well 
known. Entomologically, such terms as the “ Fly,” the “Grub,” &c., 
are not satisfactory, but, nevertheless, they embody the description of 
the cause of the attack truly, and sufficiently fully for practical 
purposes, for where all the insects concerned are of the same habits, 
do the same damage, and are to be got under in the same way, it is 
not necessary for the agriculturist to endeavour to distinguish each 
species. 
If more information be needed—and where the insect is not known 
it is of great importance to be rightly informed on the matter— 
it is far better that specimens should be sent for naming. Any 
applications on this subject directed to Mr. Preston, Mr. Fitch, or 
myself, would be attended to with pleasure; and I only wish we were 
favoured with specimens more frequently; but the prevalent idea that 
something of Entomology must be understood to enable an observer 
to note how the insect injury is to be counteracted is a great mistake, 
and loses us many a valuable note. If the observer will send a 
specimen in case he does not know what it is, this is all the scientific 
Entomology with which he need trouble himself: he knows the 
practical part of how it feeds on his crops only too well; and it is the 
detail of this injury, the amount of loss sustained, or how it has been 
prevented or stopped, that we are anxious to have information of, and 
to spread the knowledge generally. 
