208 AUGUST. 



lower branches of a plum tree, fronting the farm-house, near Stoekton-upon- 

 Tees, now occupied by Mr. Callender. During the above period, with the 

 exception of one year, this bottle has been annually tenanted by these little 

 gay-plumaged birds. About thirty years ago, the old plum tree, upon whose 

 boughs the bottle was first placed, having fallen into a state of decay, the 

 bottle was placed upon the branches of an adjoining tree, to which it is now 

 fastened by iron hoops. Thebirds did not, however, desert their favourite tene- 

 ment. Last year, ISol, they made their appearance as usual, but the inmates 

 of the farm-house having neglected to draw the previous year's nest out of it, 

 the birds were obliged to seek other quarters. This year, 1852, they have 

 again built in their old residence." Will our Stockton-upon-Tees readers be 

 so kind as to ascertain the truth of the above, and record the same in the 

 pages of ''The Naturalist," as we have quoted the same from a newspaper 

 paragraph? 



Cochineal. — We are informed upon good authority that every pound weight 

 of Cochineal contains seventy thousand insects broiled to death; so that the 

 annual sacrifice of insect life to procure our scarlet crimson dyes amounts to 

 about forty-nine millions of these small members of the creation. 



No. 5, Middle-Street, Taunton, Somerset, September \2th., 1852. 



AUGUST. 



BY C. MILLER, KSQ. 



At this season of the year, when many a falling leaf heralds the approach 

 of Autumn, when the trees here and there assume a faint russet tint, the 

 peaceful walk of the naturalist teems with interest. ''The insect that crawls, 

 the note of the bird, the plant that flowers, or the vernal green leaf that 

 peeps out, engages his attention, is recognised as an intimate, or noted for 

 some novelty that it presents in sound or aspect. Every season has its 

 peculiar products, and is pleasing or admirable from causes that variously 

 affect our different temperaments or dispositions; but there are accompaniments 

 in an autumnal morning's woodland walk, that call for all our notice and 

 admiration; the peculiar feeling of the air, and the solemn grandeur of the 

 scene around us dispose the mind to contemplation and remark." 



The contemplation of nature elevates our ideas, and stores our minds with 

 a knowledge which, though*slowly acquired, when once implanted, flourishes, 

 and by degrees takes the place of other and more worldly thoughts: we gaze 

 round on nature's varied and endless kingdom, and our hearts fill with silent 

 praise at her wonderful and admirable products. But of all those products, 

 flowers perhaps are the most dear to us — ^flowers, as some one has observed, 

 are the soul of nature, they bring warm gushing memories back to the heart, 

 become inseparably connected with the scenes of our youth, and remind us of 

 "Happy hoiys and da3's flown bj," 



