bonum, the delicate green-gage, and the sweet golden drop, to the sour and bitter bullace of our hedges. We look in vain for a species that is peculiar to one variety. Various aphides occur at different places; but they do not confine themselves to any particular variety. Penthina pruniana favours the sloe, the damson, the Halewood, as freely as it does any of our finer varieties, but rarely does perceptible injury. Smaller moths mine the leaves of plums; but I am not aware of anything which does much injury, except aphides, and they are generally confined to wall fruit, which can be syringed, or to close-growing trees which want thinning, or to the young shoots; then they speak plainly, this tree requires pruning, and to prevent a recurrence, the cuttings should be burnt. APRICOTS Have many enemies; aphides are well understood, and their remedy, syringing, is regularly practised. Let us, therefore, pass to the leaf-rolling Tortricina, amongst which Lozotenia rosaria, and L. heparana, do most mischief. The eggs are deposited about the end of June and July, they hatch in April and May, roll two or more leaves together, and tie them with a silk band, adding more leaves as they grow, and eating the foliage until it often happens that the tree is quite stripped of its leaves, and the fruit perishes. I cannot too strongly press upon the attention of gardeners the value of small birds, especially the Tits, for no eye but theirs can discover these eggs in winter; and they alone can extract the larva from between the leaves, when hatched, without injury to the trees. The Tits love to breed in any hole, especially in a garden wall. Any one neglecting to provide these holes for them behind his fruit-trees deserves to be disappointed of fruit. Let them once establish a colony in a garden, and besides the pleasure of having such lively and beautiful company around him all day, the gardener will feel that his work is being done for him, whilst he looks on with a satisfaction unknown to him before. The birds unmolested, and in winter fed with a little meat of any kind, hung on a string near the holes, become so tame and attached to the place of their birth that he need never fear their leaving him until their food (insects) is scarce, and that, I presume, is what he is aiming at from day to day. CHERRY TREES Require insectivorous birds more than any other tree. They are subject to the attack of Penthina cynosbana and P. ochroleucana, either of which defoliates the tree before the leaves have had time to mature their size. Both species are hatched in April, feed throughout May, and live between united leaves, which they eat. They attach other leaves to the ribs of the leaves already eaten; and as the foliage of the cherry grows in bunches, so each bunch is eaten by separate larvæ, until fruit alone remains. It may be asked, But what is so much eaten by birds as cherries? True, birds are fond of cherries, else why call the "merry" (the wild black cherry) "the bird cherry;" but as these birds have preserved to us a crop of fruit, are we not fairly called upon to pay the insurance? And as birds rarely touch cherries until they are dropping ripe, we, if so disposed, may cheat them of their due by gathering the fruit early. Again, this tree has another enemy, Hyponymeuta padi, which spins its web all over the tree, especially on the large wild trees grown for last-makers in the lake district, and in some seasons, trees which will square from 18 to 24 inches, and which tower up with the oaks and ashes, are covered with what may well be taken for one great spider web, under which hundreds of thousands of a dirty-looking larva, half an inch long, with small black dots upon it, may be found. If seen in June, the larvæ have turned into long white silk cocoons laid side by side, (pl. v. fig. H) from which, in a few days, a beautiful white moth emerges, having its wings dotted all over with minute black spots. This moth lays its eggs, becomes food for birds, spiders, ants, or dies a natural death. In any case it has perpetuated the mischief, or left food for our little songsters. Just as we the owners of the district destroy the birds, so the insects destroy our profit. Keep and protect the birds, remove injured parts of trees, smooth broken branches by cutting clean, destroy all trees now attacked by tree-borers. In most cases burn such trees, they are unfit for bearing timber, or even for rails, the larva now feeding on the small dead part has at once the whole dead timber to eat, if the wood is used, and sets to work right merrily; thus, we have so-called dry rot in our houses; and though it may take years to complete the work of destruction yet it will surely be done. These Malacoderma, which seem so confined in their habits in a wood, only eating the dead branches of oak, ash, beech, sycamore, fir, elm, larch &c., once introduced into the building of a church, it is quite certain that that church will, eventually, be eaten by them. The most recent instance of this fact is that of Warrington church eaten by Anobium nitidum, A. striatum, and Lasioderma testaceum, and possibly by other species; but these were all I found on my journey to examine the old timber of which it was built. In this paper, as in the one named in the first page of it, I have endeavoured to shew the value of birds on an estate. It may be that, loving birds as I do, I have over-drawn their value; but these notes are the result of careful study of the food and habits of birds, and a thorough knowledge of insects and their life history, together with a little knowledge of our glorious old English woods, and of their timber as a market able article, and are the result of years of careful observation made both where sparrow heads are paid for by parish officers, and where small birds are fostered and protected in gardens and plantations. Whatever may be thought of the conclusions arrived at, they are the convictions of one who hopes or expects nothing for his labour but that those who have used poisoned grain so freely and so effectively, or otherwise destroyed their feathered friends, will cease to do so for a few years, and watch the result: after that he fears nothing for the children of the air. Without a book from which to cull one remark on this subject, all errors of judgment, if any, must be attributed to the writer. EXPLANATION OF PLATE V. A.-Birch bark mined by Trochillium scolæforme, shewing the Larva in situ, and the hole it makes when the perfect insect escapes. B.—The Larva, three-quarter size. C.—Pupa, full size. D.-Cocoon, full size. E.-Tracks made by the Larva in the soft part of the bark. F.-T. scolaforme, female. G.-Pupa of B. fraxini (?) lunatus. H.-Cocoons of H. padi. |