drey as it is called in these parts. These small creatures he put under the care of a cat who had lately lost her kittens, and finds that she nurses and suckles them with the same assiduity and affection, as if they were her own offspring. This circumstance corroborates my suspicion, that the mention of exposed and deserted children being nurtured by female beasts of prey who had lost their young, may not be so improbable an incident as many have supposed; and therefore may be a justification of those authors Squirrel. who have gravely mentioned, what some have deemed to be a wild and improbable story. So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, and in pain for their safety; and therefore hid them over the ceiling, where one died. This circumstance shows her affection for these fondlings, and that she supposes the squirrels to be her own young. Thus hens, when they have hatched ducklings, are equally attached to them as if they were their own chickens.* HORSE. AN old hunting mare, which ran on the common, being taken very ill, ran down into the village, as it were, to implore the help of men, and died the night following in the street. HOUNDS. THE king's stag-hounds came down to Alton, attended by a huntsman and six yeomen prickers, with horns, to try for the stag that has haunted Hartley Wood for so long a time. Many hundreds of people, horse and foot, attended the dogs to see the ornamental ear-tufts are entirely wanting; the whole fur also is then much coarser, more shiny, and redder; and it is a curious fact that those young ones born in early spring are first clad in the winter livery (which I believe they do not the first summer exchange), while the second litters, which are produced about midsummer, are decked in the summer coat, and have no ear pencils.-ED. * At the mention of this, 1 may record a eurious fact, which was lately related to me by a person who witnessed it, of a hen, that for many seasons had been accustomed to hatch duck's eggs, being at length suffered to incubate her own offspring, which she immediately led to the pond, as she had been accustomed to do with the ducklings, and, flying to the opposite side, tried every means in her power to induce them to enter.-ED. deer unharboured; but though the huntsman drew Hartley Wood, and Long Coppice, and Shrubwood, and Temple Hangers, and in their way back Hartley and Ward-le-ham Hangers, yet no stag could be found. The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out before them, never drew the coverts with any address and spirit, as many people that were present observed; and this remark the event has proved to be a true one. For as a person was lately pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken in Hartley Wood, he stumbled upon the stag by accident, and ran in upon him as he lay concealed amidst a thick brake of brambles and bushes. 283 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. INSECTS IN GENERAL. THE day and night insects occupy the annuals alternately: the papilios, muscæ, and apes, are succeeded at the close of day by phalænæ, earwigs, woodlice, &c. In the dusk of the evening, when beetles begin to buz, partridges begin to call; these two circumstances are exactly coincident. Ivy is the last flower that supports the hymenopterous and dipterous insects. On sunny days quite on to November they swarm on trees covered with this plant; and when they disappear, probably retire under the shelter of its leaves, concealing themselves between its fibres and the trees which it entwines.* Spiders, woodlice, lepismæ in cupboards and among sugar, some empedes, gnats, flies of several species, some phalænæ in hedges, earth-worms, &c., are stirring at all times when winters are mild; and are of great service to those soft-billed birds that never leave us. On every sunny day the winter through, clouds of insects usually called gnats (I suppose tipulæ and empedes) appear sporting and dancing over the tops of the ever-green trees in the shrubbery, and frisking about as if the business of generation was still going on. Hence it appears that these diptera (which by their sizes appear to be of different species) are not subject to a torpid state in the winter, as most winged insects are. At night, and in frosty weather, and when it rains and blows, they seem to retire into those trees. They often are out in a fog.t The number of beautiful alderman butterfies (vanessa atalanta) that may be seen basking on ivy blossoms on a sunny November morning render them a pleasing object to behold. They are the resort, too, of great numbers of bees, which keep up an incessant and loud humming.-ED. + This I have also seen, and have frequently observed swarms of little winged insects playing up and down in the air in the middle of winter, even when the ground has been covered with snow.-ED. HUMMING IN THE AIR. THERE is a natural occurrence to be met with upon the highest part of our down in hot summer days, which always amuses me much, without giving me any satisfaction with respect to the cause of it; and that is a loud audible humming of bees in the air, though not one insect is to be seen. This sound is to be heard distinctly the whole common through, from the Moneydells, to Mr. White's avenue gate. Any person would suppose that a large swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about over his head. This noise was heard last week, on June 28th. "Resounds the living surface of the ground, Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum To him who muses at noon. Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways, THOMSON'S SEASONS. CHAFFERS. COCKCHAFFERS seldom abound oftener than once in three or four years; when they swarm, they deface the trees and hedges. Whole woods of oaks are stripped bare by them. Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the housesparrow.+ The scarabæus solstitialis first appears about June 26: they are very punctual in their coming out every year. They are a small species, about half the size of the May-chaffer, and are known in some parts by the name of the fern-chaffer.‡ The exact site whence the humming proceeds is often indicated by a concourse of hungry swallows.--ED. † A young sparrow which I picked up in my garden, and placed in a cage, for the purpose of ascertaining what food would be brought to it by its parents, was almost wholly fed on these insects.-ED. A singular circumstance relative to the cockchaffer, or as it is called here the May-bug, scarabæus melolontha, happened this year (1800): My gardener in digging some ground found, about six inches above the surface, two of these insects alive and perfectly formed so early as the 24th of March. When he brought them to me, they appeared to be as perfect and as much alive as in the midst of summer, crawling about as briskly as ever; yet I saw no more of this insect till the 22d of May, when it began to make its appearance. How comes it that, though it was perfectly formed so early as the 24th of March, it did not show itself above ground till nearly two months afterwards ?-MARKWICK. PTINUS PECTINICORNIS. THOSE maggots that make worm-holes in tables, chairs, bedposts, &c., and destroy wooden furniture, especially where there is any sap, are the larvae of the ptinus pectinicornis. This insect, it is probable, deposits its eggs on the surface, and the worms eat their way in. In their holes they turn into their pupæ state, and so come forth winged in July: eating their way through the valances or curtains of a bed, or any other furniture that happens to obstruct their passage. They seem to be most inclined to breed in beech; hence beech will not make lasting utensils, or furniture. If their eggs are deposited on the surface, frequent rubbing will preserve wooden furniture. COCKROACH. BLATTA ORIENTALIS. A NEIGHBOUR complained to me that her house was over-run with a kind of black beetle, or as she expressed herself, with a kind of black-bob, which swarmed in her kitchen when they got up in a morning before day-break. Soon after this account, I observed an unusual insect in one of my dark chimney closets, and find since, that in the night they swarm also in my kitchen. On examination, I soon ascertained the species to be the blatta orientalis of Linnæus, and the blatta molendinaria of Mouffet. The male is winged; the female is not, but shows somewhat like the rudiments of wings, as if in the pupa state. Cockroach. These insects belonged originally to the warmer parts of America, and were conveyed from thence by shipping to the East Indies; and by means of commerce begin to prevail in the more northern parts of Europe, as Russia, Sweden, &c. How long they have abounded in England I cannot say; but have never observed them in my house till lately. They love warmth, and haunt chimney-closets, and the backs |