as compared with thai of 1831, 597 



Ray records the following tradition founded on this resemblance : — " Grana 

 baccis exempta, triticeis nonnihil similia, ciim a nonnullis in areis et tem- 

 plorum tectis a volucribus temere sparsa inventa fuerint, occasionem illis 

 dederunt imaginandi, rumoremque in vulgus prodigiorum credulum spar- 

 gendi, tritico pluisse." — Catalogus Plantarum AnglicB et Insularuni adja- 

 centiwHy ed. 1670, p. 160. Ray's meaning may be thus explained ; — The 

 seeds removed from the berries resemble grains of wheat ; and when found 

 in open spaces, and upon the roofs of buildings, where they had been scat- 

 tered by birds, have given occasion to the common people, credulous of 

 prodigies, to rumour that the heavens have rained down wheat. 



The Blac/ccap honours the Bayswater gardens with its presence and 

 melody. It sang liberally, both last year and this, about the office of the 

 Magazine of Natural History. 1 have not heeded dates, but believe that 

 this year I did not hear it here till near the close of May, and then through 

 June, and to the 6th of July, when I left for a ramble into the country. 

 The blackcap, in Cambridgeshire, is the theme of an elegant and expressive 

 simile, viz., " as cheerful as a blackcap," applied both to grown up persons 

 of habitual cheerfulness ; 



" And jovial youth, of lightsome vacant heart, 

 Whose every day is made of melody." -y 



Nightingales were singing in Kensington Gardens in the middle of the day 

 (night I will not answer for,) of the 25th of April : all joy and soul they, 

 were ; and the day was slightly sunny, with a cool feeble wind, after rain 

 the day preceding: the expanding foliage of the leafing trees was all 

 around looking lovelily, but the nightingales preferred the denser covert 

 of the evergreen holly trees and yew trees. 



The Rose Beetle^ 5'carabaeHis auratus, or Cetonia aurata as now called, j[s 

 not at all rare about Bayswater, where, if I rightly remember, I this spring saw 

 specimens on the wing by the middle of April. The larvae here inhabit the 

 soil of the gardens, although what I have somewhere read may be very true, 

 that their usual habitat is decayed wood. I think this species is far from 

 plentiful in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. On the 29th of June, 1831, I saw 

 here a fine specimen revelling luxuriously among the very numerous stamens 

 of the ^rgemone grandiflora. Thesebeing yellow in hue, and the petals of the 

 large saucer-shaped flower snowy white, the Cetonia was, by virtue of his 

 rich, varied, and burnished hues, a conspicuous object. 



Scarabce'us horticola, called "thechovy" in Norfolk, is there deemed 

 very injurious to apple trees, and other trees and plants, as it feeds both on 

 leaves and all the parts of the flower. Chovies were abundant at Thetford, 

 Norfolk, about ten years ago ; but, as far as my experience has reached, 

 always rare about Bury St. Edmunds. On the 9th of June, 1829, 1 saw 

 one in the botanic garden of the last-named town, flitting about a flowering 

 bush of the Provence rose. 



Vernal Appearances at Waterbeach, near Cambridgey April 17. 1832. — 

 The following paragraph, extracted from a private letter, may be worth 

 introducing here. — J. D. .% .'^ \ "L 



" We are getting on pretty well with our gardening work, afthoii^ 

 vegetation is advancing rapidly. The plum trees will next week be in full 

 bloom. The birds sirig delightfully. A tomtit, as we call him [the com- 

 mon wren], who with his mate has been building a nest with us, sang 

 this day almost as loud as a lark. A pair of robins have built a nest in my 

 next-door neighbour's out-house, in an unoccupied birdcage. The gnats 

 form themselves into troops of an evening, and are dancing in the beams 

 of the setting sun. A gay species of butterfly has made its appearance, 

 but I have not yet seen the brimstone-coloured one." — J, D. sen. 

 April 17. 



QQ 3 



