Principal British Insects : — Terminology, 421 



boggy ground when it is trod upon. These are the singular 

 notes of the marsh wren. 



The notes of the House Wren (Motacilla domestica) are 

 loud, sprightly, and tremulous, repeated every few seconds 

 with great animation, with a trilling vivacity extremely agree- 

 able. The European who judges of the song of this species 

 by that of his own wren (Motacilla troglodytes), will do great 

 injustice to the American bird ; for, in strength of tone and 

 execution, the house wren is far superior. He may be heard 

 on the tops of houses, even in towns, singing with great energy. 



From these twenty-four examples, I think the position is 

 fully made out, that the American song birds, so far from 

 being inferior, are superior, to those of Europe, both in number 

 and in the excellence of their music. I hope, therefore, that 

 we shall hear no more of the untenable theories of BufFon 

 upon this subject. 



Leey Kent, Nov. 24. 



Art. IV. Description and History of some of the principal British 

 Insects : — Terminology, ^-^ A. J. N. 



Sir, 



In complying with your request to furnish you with the 

 natural history of some of the most important of our native 

 insects, you must allow me to premise that my knowledge of 

 insects has not been obtained from museums and books of 

 plates, but from nearly half a century's observations in the 

 open air as a farmer and gardener, assisted but by few other 

 works than those of Linnaeus. I shall not therefore trouble 

 your readers with theories of classification, nor swell your 

 pages with discussions on the recent innovations in nomen- 

 clature, but confine myself to those genera and species, which, 

 being known to almost every body, have names in current use 

 in general language. I shall always give the scientific names 

 and the orders of Linnaeus, and merely add one or two of the 

 modern synonymes of the greatest authority among entomo- 

 logists. 



Insects (from insectus, cut or notched, Lat.)^ as Dr. Johnson 

 informs us, are so called from a separation in the middle 

 of their bodies, whereby they are cut into two parts, joined 

 by a small ligature, as in the common fly. The history 

 and description of insects constitute the science of ento- 

 mology, a term formed from the two Greek words, entoma, 

 insects, and logos, a discourse. Entomology is one of the 

 principal branches of the study of natural history ; and, though 



