140 



at Batumi $?t 



a small but most courageous fowl, whose legs 

 are so much feathered as to hinder it greatly 

 in walking ; and the DWARF COCK, much 

 smaller than the Bantam, with legs so short 

 that the wings drag on the ground. 



COCKCHAFER, or MAY-BUG. (Melo- 

 lontha vulgaris.) This is one of the most 

 common of European beetles, and in this 



country there is no one with which we are 

 more familiar, the larvae or caterpillar feed- 

 ing on the roots of corn, &c., and the com- 



plete insect making its appearance during 

 the middle and the decline of summer. It 

 is found on most of the deciduous trees ; 

 particularly the oak and willow, and on the 

 hazel and other fruit trees ; and often in 

 guch numbers that branches bend under 

 their weight. Its duration in the perfect 

 state is very short, each individual living 

 only about a week, and the species entirely 

 disappearing in the course of a month. 

 After the sexes have paired, the males 



(MELOLONTHA vm.OARIS.) 



perish, and the females enter the earth to 

 the depth of six inches or more, making 

 their way by means of the strong hook which 

 arm the fore legs ; here they deposit their 

 eggs, amounting from one to two hundred 

 from each female, which are abandoned by 

 the parent, who generally ascends again to 

 the surface, and perishes in a short time. 



From the eggs are hatched, in the space 

 of fourteen days, little whitish grubs, each 

 provided with six legs near the head, and a 

 mouth furnished with strong jaws. When 

 in a state of rest, these grubs usually curl 

 themselves in the shape of a crescent. They 

 subsist on the tender roots of various plants, 

 committing ravages among these vegetable 

 substances, on some occasions of the most 

 deplorable kind, so as totally to disappoint 

 the best-founded hopes of the husbandman. 

 During the summer they live under the thin 

 coat of vegetable mould near the surface, 

 but as winter approaches they descend be- 

 low the reach of frost, and remain torpid 

 until the succeeding spring, at which time 

 they change their skins, and re-ascend to 

 the surface for food. At the end of their 

 third summer they have acquired their full 

 growth as larvae ; they then cease eating, 

 and void the residue of their food, prepara- 

 tory to the metamorphosis which they are 

 about to undergo. As this period approaches 

 they bury themselves deeper in the earth, 

 where they form a rounded cavity, the sides 

 of which are smoothed and consolidated by 



the application of a fluid disgorged from 

 their mouths. Its abode being thus formed, 

 the larva soon begins to contract in length, 

 swell, and burst its last skin, coming there- 

 from in the form of a chrysalis, exhibiting 

 the rudiments of elytra, antennae, &c., and 

 gradually acquiring consistence and colour 

 till it becomes of a brownish hue. In this 

 state it continues about three months, by 

 the end of which time it assumes its rank as 

 a perfect coleopterous insect. During the 

 months of March and April the insect ap- 

 proaches the surface of the earth, and ge- 

 nerally bursts from its subterraneous abode 

 during some mild evening about the latter 

 end of May, thus quitting its grovelling 

 mode of life, to soar aloft and disport in the 

 realms of air. 



In their winged state, these beetles, with 

 several other species, act as conspicuous a 

 part in injuring the trees, as the grubs do in 

 destroying the herbage. During the month 

 of May they come forth from the ground, 

 whence they have received the name of May- 

 bugs or May-beetles. They pass the greater 

 part of the day upon trees, clinging to the 

 under sides of the leaves, in a state of repose; 

 but as soon as evening approaches, they begin 

 to buzz about among the branches, and con- 

 tinue on the wing till near midnight. In 

 their droning flight they move very irregu- 

 larly, darting hither and thither with an 

 uncertain aim, hitting against objects in 

 their way with a force that often causes 

 them to fall to the ground. They frequently 

 enter houses in the night, apparently at- 

 tracted, as well as dazzled and bewildered, 

 by the lights. Their vagaries, in which, 

 without having the power to harm, they seem 

 to threaten an attack, have caused them to 

 be called dors, that is, darers ; while their 

 seeming blindness and stupidity have be- 

 come proverbial, in the expressions, " blind 

 as a beetle," and " beetle-headed." Besides 

 the leaves of fruit-trees, they devour those 

 of various forest-trees and shrubs, with an 

 avidity not much less than that of the lo- 

 cust ; so that, in certain seasons, and in par- 

 ticular districts, they become an oppressive 

 scourge, and the source of much misery to 

 the inhabitants. 



The animals and birds appointed to check 

 the ravages of these insects, are, according 

 to Latreille, the badger, weasel, marten, bats, 

 rats, the common dung-hill fowl, and the 

 goat-sucker or night-hawk. To this list 

 may be added the common crow, which de- 

 vours not only the perfect insects, but their 

 larvae, for which purpose it is often observed 

 to follow the plough. In " Anderson's Re- 

 creations," it is stated that " a cautious ob- 

 server, having found a nest of five young 

 jays, remarked that each of these birds, while 

 yet very young, consumed at least fifteen of 

 these full-sized grubs in one day, and of 

 course would require many more of a smaller 

 size. Say, that on an average of sizes, they 

 consumed twenty a-piece, these for the five 

 make one hundred. Each of the parents 

 consumes say fifty ; so that the pair and fa- 

 mily devour two hundred every day. Tliis, 

 in three months, amounts to twenty thousand 

 in one season. But as the grub continues 



