278 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



During the Winter feafon, the howlings of the 

 wolves in the forefts of the North referable the 

 whiftling of the winds as they agitate the trees ; 

 the cries of birds of prey are fhrill, piercing, and 

 now and then interrupted by hollow notes. Nay, 

 there are fome which emit the founds of a human 

 being in pain. Such is the lom, a fpecies of 

 fea-fowl, which feeds on the Ihelvy coaft of Lap- 

 land *, on the dead bodies of animals which are 

 there put aQiore : he cries like a man a-drowning. 



Noxious infe(51:s exhibit the fame oppofitions, 

 and the fame fignals of deftruélion. The gnat, 

 thirfting after human blood, announces himfelf to 

 the eye, by the white points with which his brown- 

 coloured body is ftudded, and to the ear, by his 

 flirill notes, which difturb the tranquillity of the 

 grove. The carnivorous wafp is fpeckled, like the 

 tiger, with black ftripes on a yellow ground. You 

 frequently find in our gardens, about the roots of 

 trees which are decaying, a fpecies of bug, of 

 a longilh form, which bears on it's red body mar- 

 bled with black, the mafk of a death's head. 

 Finally, the infeds which attack our pcrfons more 

 immediately, however fmall they may be, diftin- 

 guifli themfelves by glaring oppofitions of colour 

 to the field on which they fettle. 



* See John Scb^ffer^s Hiflory of Lapland. 



But 



