ZOOLOGY. 371 



they are dry at one time and full at another, without any apparent 

 external cause. They subserve excellently -well as breeding places for 

 aquatic insects and reptiles, and were it not for them, their numbers 

 must be materially diminished. 



The fauna of the pine barrens presents some peculiarities of interest, 

 which have heretofore been scarcely noticed. Among peculiarities of 

 domestic animals, I may allude to those of the hog. These run at 

 large in the woods, and their thin form and length of leg not only give 

 them an almost incredible fieetness, but show their half-famished con- 

 dition. From force of hunger they often become purely carnivorous, 

 and I have seen them run down domestic fowls and young goats, which 

 they kill and devour like dogs. Squirrels are quite rare in this region, 

 the pines affording little means of subsistence. The wharf-rat is found 

 only along the line of the railway, and the Florida rat exists in the 

 back country in great numbers, being granivorous and destructive. As 

 for the rabbit, it is quite common, the light soil affording it great facil- 

 ities for life, and it is quite hurtful to gardens. The opossum, also, is 

 common, and the male and female live in separate burrows, two or 

 three rods apart. 



The insects of this pine barren region may be said to be quite pecu- 

 liar. One cannot but be struck with the great numbers of wood-eating, 

 boring beetles. These certainly are the most numerous of all, the car- 

 nivorous and anthophagous insects being comparatively few. The 

 JBuprestidce, of which I recognized no less than ten species, are the 

 pine-boring insects, and small as they are, they form a most formidable 

 enemy to the luxuriance of the pine. The insidious yet certain work 

 of destruction the myriads of these insects carry on, can only be appre- 

 ciated when we consider that tracts*of pines miles in length yield be- 

 fore them, and the most stalwart trees, that never have even noticed 

 winds or currents, gradually bend before them. On some of the fallen 

 trees, I counted the holes of the insects' exit to the number of 100 or 

 more over the space of a square foot. By several of them boring for 

 a year or two, the tree is so weakened that the next strong wind breaks 

 it off, sometimes five, and sometimes fifty feet from the ground, or the 

 tree may die in a standing position. 



There is another insect which, from its great numbers, deserves men- 

 tion : I allude to the ant-lion, (Mynmilion,') which, from the fineness 

 of the sand in many places, lives with ease. The habits of this re- 

 markable insect are well known. With its abdomen it excavates in 

 the fine dry sand an infundibuliform cavity of an inch or so in depth. 

 To the bottom or apex of this cavity the insect retires, burying all but 

 its powerful jaws, which are there exposed wide open. An ant, or 

 some other small insect, walking along, treads on the edge, the sand 

 rolls, and in a moment it is at the bottom, in the jaws of the enemy. 



The turkey buzzard is constantly seen flying about, seeking dead 

 animal matter. I suppose the question as to whether it discovers its 

 food by sight or smell, has for some time been settled in favor of sight. 

 I had many opportunities to try their skill, of which I took advantage. 

 If a dead dog was dragged into the woods and carefully covered up with 

 pine boughs, it might remain there any length of time untouched ; but 



