Qjieines and Ansnsoers, 93 



A pretty correct estimate of Sir James Edward Smith's benevolent 

 views of the power and wisdom of the God of nature, (and he had a most 

 perfect and consolatory conviction of the truth of Divine Revelation,) may 

 be given with great propriety in his own words, at the conclusion of the 

 preface to the work last mentioned : — " He who feeds the sparrows, and 

 clothes the golden lily of the fields in a splendour beyond that of Solomon 

 himself, invites us, his rational creatures, to confide in his promises of 

 eternal life. — The simple blade of grass, and the grain of corn, to which 

 he gives its own body, are sufficient to convince us that our trust cannot 

 be in vain. Let those who hope to inherit these promises, and those who 

 love science for its own sake, cherish the same benevolent dispositions. 

 Envy andrivalship, in one case, are no less censurable than bigotry and un- 

 charitableness in the other. The former are as incompatible with the love 

 of nature as the latter are with the love of God, and they altogether unfit 

 us for the enjoyments of happiness here or hereafter." — T, 



Art. X. Queries and Answers. 



Putting Bees in Mourning. — I should not have mentioned the following 

 circumstance, but I own I feel a curiosity to know if the same superstition 

 prevails in any other part of the kingdom. A person, in Norfolk, to 

 whom I was talking about bees, told me that where they v^ere kept it was 

 peremptory, in case of the death of any of the family, to put the bees in 

 mourning, or the consequence would be that all of them would die. He 

 followed up this assertion by giving me a case in point, where, from the 

 neglect of the custom, every bee in the apiary had perished. The method 

 of putting them in mourning is by attaching a piece of black cloth to each 

 of the hives ! ! — Daniel Stock. Bungay, Suffolk^ April 1. 1828. 



The Shrieke, Lanius {lanius, ahutcher) excubitor {excubitory a watcher). — 

 Can you or any of your readers inform me if this bird seizes its prey with 

 its feet or its bill ? — A. B. 



The following answer to this query we obtained from Mr. Audubon. — 

 Cond. 



The Shrieke, Lanius excubitor Lin., when pouncing on its prey, seizes it 

 with its bill first (if insectivorous), then secures it under its feet to eat it. 

 The same bird, when coming on a bird or a mouse which it has pursued 

 for some distance, settles its feet at the moment that it strikes with its bill on 

 the cranium of the object pursued. I have seen a bird of this kind, in 

 America, carried to a very considerable distance by a Carolina dove, fastened 

 to the back and the head of the dove with beak and feet. And although 

 the toes are slender, and the claws comparatively weak, their pressure is 

 powerful, and the bite it inflicts with the bill can draw blood from a robust 

 man's finger in an instant. — J. J. A. 95. Great Russell Street, April 10. 

 1828. 



Mya batava. — Are any of your readers possessed of British specimens of 

 the trueikfja batava of Maton and Turton, (the i7 nio batava of Lamarck,) 

 and can they point out its locality ? I have never seen native examples of 

 this shell, which is common in France and other parts of the Continent. 

 I purchased a specimen from Mrs. Mawe, which she told me came from 

 Gibraltar.— iS. C. 



Ground Grubs. — Sir, I think you would render entomology much 

 more useful to people in general than it now is, if you gave us short de- 

 scriptions and outline figures of all the ground grubs, which, under various 

 names, do so much damage to the farmer and the gardener. The names 

 by which they are called are so various, and so contradictory, that I really 

 do not know what is the true wire-worm. A grub which has long done 

 me much damage, and which I thought was the wire-worm, a neighbour 



