BENEVOLENT BIRDS

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 4260, 4 November 1933, Page 2

BENEVOLENT BIRDS

CROAV AND CATERPILLAR

How gulls saved from insect foes the crops of Salt Lake settlement (and the lives of all the good Mormons) is historic. But here is a new (and English) story of rescue of Cheshire farms from caterpillars by crows. A correspondent narrates if in the Post, apropos to the South Canterbury caterpillar visitation: “Some forty years ago a similar visitation was made in Cheshire, England, and caused considerable concern, as the caterpillars not only ate the grass, etc., but stripped the trees —mostly oaks —of all foliage. Ary father at the time was managing part of the Egerton estates at Tatton Park, and hundreds of men were engaged digging trenches and placing' salt at the bottoms of some, hut with very little effect, as the pest clianged its scene of action with ■ every change of the wind. Eventually the crows solved the problem, and they visited us from all parts of the country, stuffing themselves so completely that we could have knocked them down with a stick. Afy father sent specimens of the caterpillar to the ‘Field’ newspaper, their entomologist deciding that it was the antler moth, probably brought with potatoes from Germany. Nothing more was seen of the caterpillars next season,”