CALENDAR FOR MAY. 
119 
worm. The damage done by the first-named grub to lawns on 
a free light soil is very often serious —in some instances total de¬ 
struction of the grass is the result. Those who have noticed the 
numbers of the winged insects of the second to be occasionally 
seen on lawns late in summer and in autumn, and who are aware 
that the food of their grubs are the roots of the grass and of 
other plants, especially those of the strawberry, lettuce, pink, 
carnation, &c., will be able to form some notion of the damage 
they would do if unchecked. They appear to be a very favorite 
food of the starling, especially during the winter and spring, 
whilst those birds remain in flocks, when they may be seen taking 
their walks in search of them with the regularity of soldiers at 
drill. Whenever any of the above-named plants are seen to droop 
their leaves, a grub will generally be found at their root, which 
it has eaten through and through—destroyed the plant. They 
should be carefully picked out and killed. The yellow wire- 
worm is frequently very abundant in good free loam, such as is 
indispensable to the zealous florist. They should be carefully 
picked out ere the loam be used for plants in pots, as they are 
very destructive to the roots. They are a very favorite article of 
food of the nightingale, a circumstance taken advantage of by 
those who cruelly murder those first of songsters by attempting 
to keep them in cages. The last two grubs, as well as the black 
wire worms, may be trapped to some extent by burying slices of 
potato, carrot, turnip, or similar roots in the beds or borders where 
they abound: they will attack the slices, and should be occasionally 
picked out of them and destroyed. 
Against caterpillars every means should also be resorted to to 
keep them under, and here, as they are visible, picking them off 
the plants by hand may be had recourse to with great benefit. 
Small birds, also, especially of the finch tribe, should not be dis¬ 
turbed, unless incontestably proved to be doing more damage 
than good. A green caterpillar, which feeds on rape and others 
of the cabbage tribe, is also very destructive to mignionette, as it 
also is, as well as some others of the cabbage caterpillars to the 
various species of tropmolums. Indeed, few of them confine 
themselves to the plant which seems to be their proper food, and 
therefore every favorite plant should be carefully watched for 
them. 
But perhaps the most effectual means of lessening the numbers 
