new built houses; being, like the spider, pleased with the moisture of walls; and, besides, the softness of the morter enables them to burrow and mine between the joints of the bricks or stones, and to open communications from one room to another; yet they are particularly fond of kitchens and bakers' ovens, on account of their warmth; residing, as it were, in a torrid zone, they are always lively and merry; and a good Christmas fire is to them like the heat of the dog-days. Though they are frequently heard by day, yet their natural time of motion is only in the night. As soon as it grows dusk, their chirping increases, and they come running forth, and are from the size of a flea to that of their full stature. As one would suppose them, (from the situations which they inhabit), they are of a thirsty race, and shew a great propensity for liquids, being frequently found drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, or the like. Whatever is moist, they affect; and therefore often gnaw holes in wet woollen stockings and aprons that are hung to the fire. These crickets are not only very thirsty, but very voracious; for they will eat the scummings of pots, yeast, salt, and crumbs of bread; and any kitchen offal or sweepings. In summer evenings they have been observed to fly out of the windows and over the roofs of houses: this feat of activity accounts for the sudden manner in which they often leave their haunts, as it does for the method by which they come to houses where they were not known before. It is remarkable that many sorts of insects seem never to use their wings but when they have a mind to shift their quarters and settle new colonies. When in the air, they move in waves or curves, and like woodpeckers, opening and shutting their wings at every stroke, and are always rising and sinking. When they increase to a great degree, they become noisome pests, flying into candles, and dashing into people's faces, but may be blasted with gunpowder discharged into their crevices and crannies. Cats catch house crickets, and, playing with them as they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may be destroyed, like wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any liquid, and set in their haunts; for being always eager to drink, they will crowd in till the bottles are full. A popular prejudice, however, frequently prevents their being driven away and destroyed: the common people imagine that their presence brings a kind of luck to the house while they are in it, and think it would be hazardous to destroy them.

THIS is one of the largest species of the tribe. Its back is covered with a hard, thick, brown coat, hollowed at the sides, and cleft transversely across the middle, as if it had a hole in that place: the head is small, and with difficulty distinguished from the corselet; the mouth is furnished with brown, hard, crooked teeth; the body is large and round, growing out into two parts: the whole body, except the back, and the feet, are covered with long bushy hair; an exact representation of which is delineated in the engraving, which shews the under part of the insect: the extremities of the feet are smooth and large, like the toes of dog.

This hideous species of the spider tribe preys principally on small birds; in doing which, it tears them to pieces in a cruel manner to get at their blood, and afterwards sucks their eggs.

THE BARBARY SPIDER.

THIS species is as large as a man's thumb, and is a native of Barbary. It inhabits hedges and thickets; its web has large meshes, and it resides in the centre upon its nest. This snare is spread for large flies, wasps, drones, and even locusts. The animal which it entangles is soon killed by the spider, and partly eaten, if the spider be hungry; the rest is concealed under some neighbouring dry leaves, covered with a kind of web, and a blackish glue in great abundance. Its larder is often plentifully stored. Its nest is about the size of a pullet's egg, divided horizontally, and suspended by the threads of the in

P

sect, which are of a silvery white, and stronger than silk. It carries its eggs in a little bag under its belly, from which the young ones come out, and for a time live in the same web in amity; but, when grown up, are mortal enemies. Whenever they meet, they fight with violence; and their battle only ends with the death of the weakest, whose dead body is carefully stored away in the larder.

THERE are several species of this insect, but every kind has two divisions in its body. The fore part, containing the head and breast, is separated from the hinder part, or belly, by a very slender thread, though which, however, there is a communication from one part to the other: the fore part is covered with a hard shell, as well as the legs, which adhere to the breast; the hind part is clothed with a supple skin, beset all over with hair. They have several eyes all round the head, brilliant and acute; these are sometimes eight in number, sometimes but six: two behind, two before, and the rest on each side. Like all other insects, their eyes are immoveable, and they want eye-lids; but this organ is fortified with a transparent horny substance, which at once secures and assists their vision. As the animal procures its subsistence by the most watchful attention, so large a number of eyes are necessary to give it the earliest information of the capture of its prey. They have all eight legs, jointed, like those of a lobster, and similar also in other respects. But its principal qualification is making its web, on which indeed, its existence entirely depends.

The females lay six or seven hundred eggs in bags, which they make on purpose, lined within side by a down which they pluck from their own breast. These eggs are generally deposited in August or September, and about sixteen days afterwards the young are hatched.

THE SCORPION.

THE Scorpion has a distant resemblance in shape to the lobster, but is infinitely more ugly: it also casts its skin as the lobster does its shell. They have eight legs, besides two claws, and eight eyes, three of which are placed on each side of the chest, and two in the middle: the head appears, as it were, jointed to the breast; and the parts, notched into each other, answer the purpose of teeth in breaking the food; on each side of the head is a four-jointed arm terminated by a claw, somewhat like that of a lobster: the belly is divided into seven segments, from the lowest of which the tail commences; this, in the common species, is armed with a hard-pointed and crooked sting, the poison of which is very powerful. There are about nine different kinds of this dangerous insect, chiefly distinguished by their colours; some being yellow, brown, and ash-coloured; others of a rusty iron, green, pale yellow, black, claret-colour, white, and grey. They are very common in all hot countries, and extremely bold and watchful.

The male and female scorpions can be very easily distinguished, from the former being smaller and less hairy, The female brings forth her young alive, and perfect in their kind.

In Italy, Spain, and the south of France, they are frequently to be met with three inches in length, and are considered as the greatest pests that torment mankind; but the size and malignity of the scorpions of Europe may be deemed trifling, when compared with that of the African monsters, that are distinguished by that name. Along the Gold Coast, they are sometimes found larger than a lobster, and their sting is inevitably fatal. From the language of Scripture too, we find that in the East these animals have long been formidable to mankind. In Batavia, they sometimes grow twelve inches in length: and in removing furniture, behind which they skulk, there is the utmost danger of being stung.

THE Common, or domestic honey-bee, is an insect whose exertions afford us two of the principal necessaries of life, food and light; and although they appear to gather the honey and wax merely for their own comfort, yet the industry of man has turned it to his own advantage. The bee is a small insect, of a brown colour, covered on the corselet and belly with hairs: they have four wings and six legs, the thighs are also covered with strong bristles. Each bee is furnished with a kind of a trunk, commonly folded up, but capable of being extended at pleasure. It is with this instrument that they collect their food; not by pumping or sucking, but by licking it from the nectaria of flowers. Observation has proved, it is only the queen and the labouring bee that have stings; and this provision of a sting is perhaps as curious a circumstance as any attending the bee. The apparatus itself is of a very singular construction, fitted for inflicting a wound, and at the same time conveying a poison into the incision. They have been known to pierce the palm of the hand, which is covered with a thick skin, as deep at the 1-12th of an inch.