I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds, which
winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia state. All
the species of wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow streams
near their spring-heads, where they never freeze; and, by wading,
pick out the aurelias of the genus of Phryganeae,* etc.
(* See Derham's Physico-theology, p. 235.)
Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather, where
they pick up crumbs and other sweepings: and in mild weather they
procure worms, which are stirring every month in the year, as any
one may see that will only be at the trouble of taking a candle to a
grass-plot on any mild winter's night. Red-breasts and wrens in the
winter haunt out-houses, stables, and barns, where they find spiders
and files that have laid themselves up during the cold season. But
the grand support of the soft-billed birds in winter is that infinite
profusion of aureliae of the lepidoptera ordo, which is fastened to
the twigs of trees and their trunks; to the pales and walls of gardens
and buildings; and is found in every cranny and cleft of rock or
rubbish, and even in the ground itself.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180