NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS. 287 



Food of the Larvae op Ephemerae. — Mr. Rennie says that 

 the larva of the May Fly (Ephemera) "feeds, if we may judge 

 from its egesta, upon the slime or moistened clay with which its 

 hole £in the banks of rivers, &c] is lined." I have often kept 

 numbers of the larvae of Ephemerae, and observed that when any of 

 them died they soon disappeared: I believe the survivors used them 

 as food. 



Sleep of Animals, p. 261. — " All observers agree that Ants 

 labour in the night, and a French naturalist is, therefore, of opinion 

 that they never sleep; a circumstance which is well ascertained 

 with respect to other animals, such as the Shark, which will track a 

 ship in full sail for weeks together." The Golden Carp (Cyprinus 

 auratus ), according to Dr. Hancock, is never observed to sleep. — 

 See Quarterly Journal of Science, No. 16, p. 291. 



White Ants ( Termites), p. 287- — At the Entomological So- 

 ciety's meeting, on February 1, 1836, was exhibited a specimen of 

 the nest of the White Ants, Termites, being the first brought to 

 this country. It was of small size, though some are as high as ten 

 or twelve feet. Several spherical case fuzes, destroyed by the Wood 

 Ant of Barbadoes, were also exhibited, from the United Service 

 Museum, to which collection they had been forwarded by Lieut. 

 Col. Biron. At a previous meeting, on Jan. 6, 1834, was exhibited 

 a piece of wood greatly perforated by Termites in the East Indies ; 

 and Capt. Smee observed that, from observations he had made in 

 India, it appeared to him that Termites were much more destruc- 

 tive, in consequence of a powerful acid which they leave upon 

 every thing they pass over, than from their merely feeding upon 

 such substances. 



Effects of certain Electric States of the Weather 

 upon Animals, p. 344. — "Frogs, Cats, and other animals," says 

 M. D'Isjonval, " are affected by natural electricity, and feel the 

 change of weather ; but no other animal more than myself and my 

 spiders." During wet and windy weather he accordingly found 

 that they spun very short lines, " but when a Spider spins a long 

 thread, there is a certainty of fine weather for at least ten or twelve 

 days afterwards." See an article on the effects of electricity, &c, 

 upon animals, published in the Field Naturalist's Magazine, ii., 91. 



Insects spinning Egg-bags, p. 354. — It is well known that 

 most Spiders spin a sort of bag to inclose their eggs, but the only 



to such a purpose, for the best of all reasons, because it does not possess any ; 

 so that it is likely that Mr. Woodward, when he hazarded this conjecture, 

 had not seen the insect in its larva state." — Mag. Nat. Hist., viii., p. C28. 



