496 



POMEGRANATE PON TEDERACEjE. 



the knowledge of which we are indebted to the same 

 illustrious naturalist. It has a considerable general 

 resemblance to the former, but it is considerably 

 smaller. Its length is seven inches and three quar- 

 ters. The upper part is brownish yellow ; the dark 

 streak over the eye extends to the nape ; the throat, 

 breast, and anterior part of the belly are white ; and 

 the bill and feet are black. 



P. mmitana. This species has been observed in 

 the wooded parts of the mountains of Java, at the 

 height of seven thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea ; and it is probable that it also exists in the ele- 

 vated parts of the adjacent islands, and in New 

 Guinea. Its total length is seven inches and a half; 

 its general colour maroon ; its head blackish with 

 a white eye-streak ; and its throat and breast pure 

 white. 



P. Isidorii is a native of New Guinea, and though 

 it has the same generic characters, it differs consider- 

 ably in appearance from any of the others. Its 

 general colour is maroon, very rich on the wings and 

 tail, paler on the throat and breast, duller on the 

 belly, and mottled a little with grey on the head and 

 back. The total length is about eight inches ; the 

 bill is an inch in length, of a yellow colour, very 

 much compressed toward the tip, and with the mar- 

 gin of the upper mandible overlapping the edges of 

 the under one. The tarsi are very stout for the size 

 of the bird; they are covered with large scales in 

 front, and of a reddish brown colour. The toes 

 are stout, of the same colour as the tarsi, and 

 furnished with compressed and crooked yellow 

 claws. The tail consists of ten feathers, is wedge- 

 shaped at the extremity, and nearly four inches long ; 

 so that when the length of the bill and tail are sub- 

 tracted, there remains little more than three inches 

 for the body and head of the bird. The wings are 

 short, and all the quills nearly of equal length, the 

 first being the shortest in the wing. 



This bird is easily obtained in the woods of New 

 Guinea, from which specimens were first brought by 

 the French. It is a bird of very peculiar structure, 

 from the length of the bill and tail, the shortness of 

 the wings, and the fact of their being nearly squared 

 over. In these respects there is hardly any other 

 bird that can be compared with it ; and, although 

 nothing is known of its habits, there must be a pecu- 

 liarity of habit answering to its peculiarity of struc- 

 ture. It must be quite incapable of long-continued 

 flight, and thus it cannot move from island to island 

 unless where these are separated from each other by 

 narrow channels. The strength of the tarsi and 

 toes, and the larger scales on the former, might lead 

 to the supposition that it is a ground bird, but the 

 form of the claws are against that. The genus alto- 

 gether is one of the many peculiar ones of the eastern 

 islands, to which we have nothing corresponding in 

 any other region. 



POMEGRANATE is the Punica granalum of 

 Willdenow, a fruit-bearing shrub indigenous to the 

 south of Europe, and which in the natural system 

 constitutes an order by itself. The pomegranate, so 

 called from its fruit being likened to an apple full of 

 grain, has received its generic name either from the 

 scarlet colour of its flowers, or in reference to its 

 Punic habitat, the plant being originally found on the- 

 northern shores of Africa. It has been long an in- 

 habitant of our gardens, but valued for its fine flowers 

 rather than for its fruit, which never ripen thoroughly 



in this country. They are usually planted against 

 south walls!, and are easily propagated. 



POMPILID./E (Leach). A family of aculeated 

 hymenopterous insects, belonging to the sub-section 

 Foxnorcs, and having the hind legs long, the antenna; 

 filiform or setaceous, and often curled up spirally at 

 the tips in the females ; the abdomen is ovoid or oval, 

 and attached to the thorax by a narrow and very 

 short peduncle ; the lower jaws and lip are straight, 

 and of a moderate length ; the collar is transversely 

 quadrate or longitudinal ; the hind margin being 

 nearly straight, and extending as far as the base of 

 the fore wings. The family is of considerable extent, 

 and comprises species varying considerably both in 

 their size and colours ; they do not appear to be con- 

 fined to particular districts of the globe, but prefer 

 warm and sandy situations, in which the females 

 construct their nests by burrowing in the earth ; they 

 generally provision their nests with spiders, but occa- 

 sionally with other insects which they have wounded 

 with their stings, and which serve for the food of their 

 progeny, which are produced from eggs deposited 

 separately in the provisioned cells ; some species also 

 make their nests in burrows which they find already 

 formed in wood. They are extremely active in their 

 movements ; and whilst the females are in search of 

 their prey, they may be observed constantly running 

 along the ground, shaking their wings, or taking short 

 flights. The males are generally smaller than the 

 females ; the latter are provided with an extremely 

 powerful sting, and the wounds which they make with 

 it are very painful. 



We have, on various occasions, noticed the great 

 solicitude exhibited by female insects in the construc- 

 tion and provisioning of the nests, formed, not for 

 their own residence, but for their future young. The 

 following observations, extracted from the note book 

 of the writer hereof, present another instance of the 

 same kind. " September 17. Observed a very small 

 specimen of Pompilus fuscus, at the foot of a perpen- 

 dicular sand-bank, at Coombe, dragging a seemingly 

 dead ant (Formica Herculcana), much larger than 

 itself, to its burrow ; on reaching the foot of the bank 

 it quitted the ant, and, as I thought, flew away, but 

 it was only to reconnoitre and discover the nearest 

 way to its nest, situate half up the bank. It then 

 returned to the ant, and seizing it in its jaws began, 

 tail foremost, to drag it up the bank, the uneven sur- 

 face of which, however, caused it several times to 

 overbalance itself, and fall down again to the foot of 

 the bank. This, however, seemed not to intimidate 

 it, for it as often commenced the re-ascent, endeavour- 

 ing at the same time to avoid the uneven parts which 

 had caused its downfal. I watched it thus occupied 

 for a length of time, and have little doubt that it ulti- 

 mately succeeded in reaching the nest, although my 

 attention was attracted away by other objects." 



The family comprises the genera Pepsis, Ceropaks, 

 Pompilus, Salius, Planiceps, and Aporut. Those 

 printed in italics being British. The genus Pompilus, 

 Fabricius, comprises those species which have the 

 maxillary palpi longer than the labial, the upper lip 

 concealed beneath the clypeus and the wings, with 

 four sub-marginal cells. There are twenty-six British 

 species, including the type Sphex viaticus (Linnaeus), 

 a handsome insect, varied with red and black, which 

 is very common on Hampstead Heath and else- 

 where. 



PONTEDERACE^E. A small natural order in- 



