Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-09-15
FOOD FOR BIRDS
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE
PROSY CATERPILLAR.
The Uses it Serves to the Lower AMI
max Kingdom-Howi it
is Done.

The mission e tie caterpillar may be
considered as t1ofold, says the London
Standard. He has to reach the chrysalis
stage, from which hs. viii emerge as a bus-
terfy Or moth, and shen perpetuate his
species; and he is an admirable machine
for the conversion of vegetable matter into
form m which it car be digested and
relished by birds He stands to the feath-
cred world indeed, in exactly the same po-
sltion that the OK and the sheep occupy in
relation to man. Although partial to seeds
and fruits, birds are not vegeiariaps in the
broad sense Of the term, and would starve
had they nothing but leaves TO devour,
whether the leaves of the rose or the cab
bage; the caterpillar then comes ss.the res
cue, and forms the intermediary link. He
possesses an appetite of extraordinary
voracity, and, in tae'coJlrse of his not yerr
long life, eats many hundred times his
weight of vegetables. and converts them
into rich and luscious food for the birds,
1t may be said thst,. in some resnects
at least. the instinct of caterpiilars
must be defective, or, ,4sowing that their
plumpness IS their DANCES, they would eat
less This is no doubts true. but as isis
also true Of sheep and bullocks, it can
hardly be made the subject of reproach to,
the caterpillar. But, after all, vast as is
the number of caterpillars sho go to feed
the birds, 1t cannot be said that birds are
by any means their chief enemy. Their
great foe and relentless exterminator is
the ichneTmon, against whom none of
their cunning devices of concealment
avail but who can discover shem in their
Utmost lurking places. The ichneumon
wares in size as greatly as does the cater
pillar himself. Some of them are as long
as wasps although with slender body. no
thicker than bodllin; some so tiny that
they can scarce be seen with the naked
eye; but all are alike in their habits.
Watch one. large or small, as he settles
upon leaf Straightway he begins to
hunt up and down with quick, eager mo-
ton, like dog quartering turnip field
for partridges. Up and down be-
low and above, prying into every
Granny, he. hunts, hurrying from one
leaf to another until he finds a caterpillar.
lie wastes no time with him, he thrusts
the long oviposisor through the skin and
places an egg snugly there. He repeats
this two, three CT half dozen times. ac-
cording to his own size and that to which
the caterpillar will grow His Young
ones must be feed when they are Matched,
and 1t would not do to lay more than the
caterpillar can support What the sensa-
lions of the caterpillar are when TINS
treated no one has thus far attempted to
/
the operation Is performed, and then
pursues It's vocation as quietly as if moth.
ing had happened. There can be but lit
tie doubt thatit is profoundly discouraged;
1t must feel that ali its efforts to elude the
foe have been wasted. 1t doubtless knows
that it has received its death-wound, that
1t will never soar IN the air as bright
winged butterfly, but that its chrysalis
state will be its last. 1t speaks
well, them. for the sense of duty
OF the caterpillar that it goes
doggedly on as before, eating as largely
and steady as if nothing had occurred,
and showing no signs of pain or disturb
ance at the birth of foes who soon begin to
gnaw away in its interior 1t is to be
hoped, indeed, that it suffers but slightly.
The organs of the caterpillar are simple.
1t Is a small tube, and it is probable that
its sensibiiity is slight; still it is inevita-
BILE that it must suffer more or less, but it
goes on until, just as it is about to assume
the chrysalis state, or Just after it has done
so, 1t dies, and the little ichneumons make
their way through the skin, and after a
brief repose, fly away to recommence the
deadly work of their parents Ii is calcu-
lated that fully so per cent. of caterpillars
are slain by ichnenmons.
The caterpillar is distinguished for its
imperturable good temper No one has
yet witnessed good stand-up fight be-
tween two caterpillars. Even when
browsing in hundreds upon leaf, each
caterpillar continues Its work of eating,
wholly regardless of the multitude feeding
around it.