196 The Field Natitralisfs Quarterly Aug. 



Of the thirty-six regular summer migrants to the British 

 Isles (and which regularly nest in this country) records are 

 set out above of no less than thirty species, those unrecorded 

 being the spotted crake, hobby falcon, pied flycatcher, Ken- 

 tish plover, quail, and marsh-warbler, all of which, although 

 regular summer migrants, are very sparsely distributed. 



Lives Measured by Minutes. 



By the Rev. John Isabell, F.E.S. 



In the days when the Psalmist wrote, the life of man was 

 estimated at threescore years and ten, with another ten 

 years added in exceptional cases. That men sometimes 

 reach a hundred years is undoubted, but nevertheless a 

 person who has seen eighty summers is invariably regarded 

 as old. Animals vary greatly in the length of their lives. 

 Elephants, eagles, and parrots may celebrate their hundredth 

 birthday, but our domesticated beasts are thought to be 

 aged when they have reached a quarter of a hundred. A 

 horse is old at twenty, a donkey at twenty-five, and a cat 

 or dog at fifteen. The span of existence allotted to insects 

 is shorter still ; the fly and butterfly commonly enjoying 

 but one summer of vigorous life, and then being taken off 

 by the cold, if they are not previously snapped up by a 

 bird. Water-beetles under favourable circumstances may 

 live for five years, and the social bees and ants are known 

 to live longer than their solitary relations. 



But when we measure the life of an msect we usually take 

 into consideration only a part of that life — namely, that 

 spent in a mature state — forgetting or ignoring the time 

 passed as a grub. Thus the cicada, famous for its voice, 

 and for the sly remark of a Greek poet that it was fortunate 

 in having a dumb wife, has in America some noteworthy 

 relatives, which pass seventeen years underground before 

 they come to the surface and give the world the benefit of 

 their music. Judged by their winged life, they are poor 

 subjects for an insurance office, whereas in reality their 



