180 
HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. 
[Packard. 
for entire days, as fast as they could bring them, with the 
moth of the cut-worm. That is about as much as we could 
expect any bird to do at one time. At the rate they went, 
they must have caught and given their young ones about 
five hundred of these moths in a day. Before that, I had 
supposed that the robin did me more harm than good, but I 
had to give in. My indebtedness to that pair was worth all 
the cherries I could raise in many years. So the robin and 
I are fast friends.’” 
From the facts already presented, it may be inferred how 
useful birds may become in the work of reducing the num¬ 
ber of injurious insects. Undoubtedly we have suffered 
greatly by our wanton killing of the smaller birds. We 
are far behind European nations in caring for the insect¬ 
eating kinds, and providing nests for them about our houses 
and gardens. The Swiss and French have been the most 
far-sighted in this matter of the protection of the smaller 
insectivorous species. The English, Scandinavians and 
Germans foster them, while in our country, teeming as it is 
with hosts of ravaging insects, the smaller birds are hunted 
and persecuted, or if let alone, there is no effort made on 
any extended scale to invijte them to our houses and gardens. 
The Apple Sphinx. — This modest gray hawk moth, rather 
smaller than the generality of the species, appears in June 
and lays scattered eggs on the leaves, from which the cater¬ 
pillars hatch. They are large, pea-green worms, with seven 
oblique violet stripes along each side, and a horn on the 
end of the body. It is the Sphinx gordius. The larva of 
another hawk moth, with a rough granular skin, a bluish 
horn and seven yellowish white streaks on the side, is also 
found on the apple. The moth is fawn colored, w r ith the 
wings notched, the hinder pair bearing a large black eye- 
spot centred with blue. It is the Smerinthus exccecatus. 
The Swallow Tail Butterfly. —The caterpillar of Papilio 
Turnus is occasionally found on the leaves of the apple. It 
20 
