G72 Zoology, 



some point in a branch, and each makes the best of its way to 

 the earth. In one such instance, which I witnessed, the indi- 

 vidual threads (for every caterpillar provides a thread for 

 itself), from their emanating from an almost common point, 

 became blended into one, for the first two or three feet from 

 the point of suspension ; and owing to a difference in the 

 vigour of the respective caterpillars, or, perhaps, from dif- 

 ferences in their time of starting, they were to be observed in 

 every stage of progress in their downward journey to the 

 earth. I suppose that, without a question, these Kensington 

 Gardens caterpillars are identical as to species (Tortrix viri- 

 dana) with C. P.'s Surrey ones. In a look round Bury St. 

 Edmunds, in the middle of July, I saw a few oak trees ; but 

 they did not seem to have been obviously attacked, to any 

 injurious extent, by caterpillars. 



August 18. In a densely planted part of Kensington Gar- 

 dens, there is a large proportion of lime trees, lofty from 

 having been drawn up in their youth, the spring-borne leaves 

 of which have been especially ravaged by the caterpillars of 

 some species of insect. The skeletons of the old leaves, con- 

 trasting with the perfect entire leaves produced since mid- 

 summer, have a conspicuous and miserable appearance when 

 looked up to from the ground. Similar skeletons of leaves 

 abound on the few hornbeam trees, and numerous elm trees, 

 which Kensington Gardens contain. — J, D. 



The Possibility of introducmg and naturalising that heautifal 

 Insect the Tire Tly. — It abounds not only in Canada, where 

 the winters are so severe, but in the villages of the Vaudois in 

 Piedmont. These are a poor people much attached to the 

 English; and, at 105. a dozen, would, no doubt, deliver in 

 Paris, in boxes properly contrived, any number of these 

 creatures, in every stage of their existence, and even in the 

 e^g^ should that be desired : and if twenty dozen were turned 

 out in different parts of England, there cannot remain a doubt 

 but that, in a hw years, they would be common through the 

 country; and, in our summer evenings, be exquisitely beauti- 

 ful. — ^. X Teh.S. 1832. 



Vigne, in his Six Months in America, says : — "At Balti- 

 more I first saw the fire fly. They begin to appear about 

 sunset, after which they are sparkling in all directions. In 

 some places ladies wear them in their hair, and the effect is 

 said to be very brilliant. Mischievous boys will sometimes 

 catch a bullfrog, and fasten them all over him. They show to 

 great advantage ; while the poor frog, who cannot understand 

 the " new lights " that are breaking upon him, affords amuse- 

 ment to his tormentors by hopping about in a state of desper- 

 ation. — J, D, 



