Sh'cttonavn of 



$ature. 



it keeps clear by pushing its castings out of dually thicker towards their points, in others 

 the orifice of the hole, as fast as they accu- serrated or pectinated; the anus naked: 

 mulate. These castings or chips are like | hind feet generally very large. The female 

 very fine saw-dust ; and the holes made l>y i deposits an egg in the young and tender germ 

 the insects are easily discovered by the dust of various leguminous or cereal plants, &c., 

 around then. The grub is about an inch upon which the larva feeds, and within 

 long and nearly cylindrical ; the last segment 

 is of a horny consistence, and is obliquely 

 hollowed at the end, so as to form a kind of 

 gouge or scoop, the edges of which are fur- 

 nished with little notches or teeth. It is by 

 means of this singular scoop that the grub 

 shovels the minute grains of wood out of its 

 burrow. The pupa, which is of a yellowish 

 white colour, is met with in the burrow 

 formed by the larva ; the back is furnished 

 with transverse rows of little thorns or sharp 

 teeth, and there are two larger thorns at the 

 extremity of the body. These minute thorns 

 probably enable the pupa to move towards 

 the mouth of its burrow when it is about to 

 be transformed, and may serve also to keep 

 its body steady during its exertions in cast- 

 ing off its pupa-skin. These insects are most 

 abundant in trees that have been cut down 

 for timber or fuel, which are generally at- 

 tacked the first summer after they are felled ; 

 it has also been ascertained that living trees 

 do not always escape, but those that are in 

 full vigour are rarely perforated by grubs of 

 this kind. 



BREVIPENNES. The term given to the 

 first family of Stilt-birds, the shortness of 

 whose wings are inadequate to perform the 

 function of flight ; the weight of their mas- 

 sive bodies appearing to require more mus- 



cular power to support them in the air than 

 nature has furnished them with. The pec- 

 toral muscles are reduced to extreme tenuity ; 

 but the muscles of the thighs and legs are 

 of an enormous thickness. [See OSTRICH, 

 CASSOWARY, &c.] 



BRILL, or PEARL. (Pleuronectes rhom- 

 bus.) In its general form this fish resembles 

 the Turbot, but is inferior to it both in size 

 and quality. It is distinguished from the 

 Turbot by the perfect smoothness of its skin, 

 which is covered with scales of a moderate 

 size, and by its pale brown colour above, 

 marked by scattered yellowish or rufous 

 spots ; the lateral line, as in the Turbot, is 

 first arched over the pectoral fins, and from 

 thence runs straight to the tail. The Brill 

 u taken on many parts of our coasts ; the 

 principal part of the supply for the London 

 market being derived from the southern 

 coast, where it is most abundant. 



BRIMSTONE [BUTTERFLY]. A name 

 applied by collectors to the Butterfly called 

 Gonepteryx Jthamni. 



BROCK. A local name given to the 

 Badger. Burns alludes to a " stinking brock." 

 It also denotes a hart in its third year. 



BRUCHUS : BRUCIIID^. A genus and 

 family of Coleopterous insects, allied to the 

 Weevils, and thus characterized: palpi 

 obvious, filiform, not very minute ; rostrum 

 broad ; labrum exserted ; antennas eleven- 

 jointed, sub-clavate, with the club formed 

 of distinct joints in some; filiform, or gra- 



which it undergoes its transformations : the 

 perfect insect, in order to make its escape, 

 detaches a portion of the epidermis like a 

 small cup ; hence the small holes often ob- 

 served in peas, dates, &c. The family is very 

 extensive. Bnichiiapi.fi, Linn., which is two 

 lines long, black, with grey spots on the 

 elytra, in some years does great mischief to 

 peas, particularly in North America. nc- 

 chus serripes, the figure of which is here 



tiven, with the head and posterior limb, is a 

 ne example of this family. By some authors 

 it is placed in a separate genus. 



BRUSH TURKEY. The local name 

 given by the colonists to the New Holland 

 Vulture (of Latham,) or Tallegalla (of 

 Gould). [See TALLEGALLA.] 



BUBO. A subgenus of owls. [See O\VL.] 

 BUCCINUM. A genus of Molluscous ani- 

 mals called Whelks ; the general characters 

 of which are, that their mouths are an oblong 

 or very lengthened oval, the upper parts of 

 which are slightly beaked In the Unnsenn 

 system, the Buccina form a distinct genus 

 of the univalve and spiral Testacea. Those 

 species most usually met with on the coasts 

 of the British isles are the brown, massy, 

 waved, striated, reticulated, and small Bnc 

 cina. The shell of the Bttccinum Inpillits 

 (the common White Buccinum) is one of the 

 shells from which the ancients are supposed 

 to have extracted their indelible purple dye, 

 called the Tyrinn purple. The part con- 

 taining the colouring matter is a longitu- 

 dinal vein, just under the skin on the back, 

 behind the head. If the vein is laid open 

 with a needle, a tenacious yellow matter will 

 flow, which being applied with a hair pen- 

 cil to linen, silk, or paper, it will in a short 

 time become of a bright yellow, will soon 

 change to pale green, then assume a bluish 

 cast, and afterwards a deep and brilliant 

 purple. 



We learn from Mr. Stevenson's interesting 

 narrative of the erection of the Bell Rock 

 light-house, that the Dwcinum In/tillus preys 

 upon the Mussel (Mytilus cdulis.) Mr. S. 

 says, "When the workmen first landed upon 

 the Bell Rock, limpets of a very large size 



