Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/229

 the beasts; the badger and the martin have become scarce, and the fox owes his existence more to the taste for hunting than to his own sagacity.

With regard to insects, in some years they are a perfect plague; the light dry soil of the district is particularly favourable to the different species of the aphis family. The ants are likewise very numerous, particularly the Formicæ herculaneæ. In some years, the beetles, and the larvæ of the different Lepidopterous tribes destroy whole woods and orchards. The trees, indeed, rarely die, but, for that year, they neither grow nor produce fruit. The Scarabœus Horticola, S. Melolontha, and S. auratus, are among the most active. A few years ago, the S. auratus increased so much as to cause great alarm among our horticulturists, but they have, of late years, been much less numerous; occasionally, the larvæ of the P. Cratœgi destroy the hedges to a great extent.

Our rivers produce but few fish which are not found in most others of the same size. Though the Severn has so long been celebrated for its salmon, it is very rarely taken in this neighbourhood. The following are the only species which are not well known in other streams:─

Before the opening of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the only communication which existed with North Wales and with the manufacturing districts, was carried on by pack horses, of which, it is said, 400 have been stationed in Bewdley at one time, and afterwards, when the roads were improved, by waggons.