Jitrttmiarg at 



215 



is more vigilant, and Ms senses more acute, 

 than those of the buffalo or caribou, while he 

 is more prudent and crafty than the deer. 

 * * * I know not whether the Moose has 

 ever been tamed ; but I think it not improba- 

 ble that it could be trained to harness, as well 

 as its congeners, the reindeer and the wapiti: 

 and it would, from its size and strength, be 

 more serviceable than either of them. But 

 in a new country, like this, where alone the 

 opportunity for such an experiment is to be 

 found, the inhabitants generally have little 

 time, and less inclination, for innovations." 

 Many extraordinary accounts have been 

 circulated by travellers, who wrote in the 

 17th century, of Elks or Moose Deer being 

 seen in North America, whose height was 

 twelve feet, and the weight of whose horns 

 was between three and four hundred pounds. 

 Such stories were probably derived from 

 vague and uncertain descriptions furnished 

 by the Indian tribes. That some animal, 

 however, of the deer kind, far superior in 

 size to any at present known, once existed, 

 is sufficiently proved by the enormous fossil 

 horns which have often been found at a con- 

 siderable depth in the bogs of Ireland and 

 the Isle of Man, as well as in America and 

 other parts of the world. Their appearance, 

 however, differs so considerably from the 

 horns of the Elk, that it seems now pretty 

 generally agreed among naturalists, that 

 they must have belonged to some species 

 either quite extinct or hitherto undiscovered. 

 They are much longer and narrower in pro- 

 portion than those of the Elk. and are fur- 

 nished with brow antlers ; and the processes 

 or divisions into which the sides and extre- 

 mities run are much longer, sharper, and 

 more distant in proportion. Specimens of 

 these horns occur in most of our museums, 

 and are justly considered as some of the 

 most interesting examples of fossil zoology. 



ELAND. The name of a very large and 

 fine species of Antelope found at the Cape of 

 Good Hope. It is the Boselaphus Oreas of 

 naturalists : it is also called the Impophoo. 



ELATEK : ELATERID^E. A genus and 

 family of Coleopterous insects, 

 having setaceous antennae; but 

 whose leading character is a 

 strong spine situated beneath 

 the thorax, which fits at plea- 

 sure into a small cavity on 

 the upper part of the abdomen ; 

 thus enabling the insect, when 

 laid on its back, to spring up 

 with great force and agility, in 

 order to regain its natural po- 

 sition. There are various spe- 

 cies of these Beetles ; but few of 

 the European species are com- 

 parable in point of size to such 

 ks are natives of the tropics. 



The largest, and one of the 

 most remarkable, is the ELATEB 



VLABELLICORN1S, which IS tWO 



inches and a half long, and of auniform brown 

 colour : it differs from the rest in having very 



strongly pectinated antennae, the divisions 

 of which, forming a kind of fan on the upper 

 part of each, are nearly a quarter of an inch 



n length. It is met with in many parts of 

 Asia and Africa. 



A species, still more remarkable than the 

 jreceding, is the Pyrophorus noctUucus, called 

 n South America Cocoas. It is about an 

 nch and a half long, of a brown colour, and 

 has a smooth, yellow, semi-transparent spot 

 on each side of the thorax ; these spots being, 

 like those on the abdomen of the glowworm, 



F1RB-FI.T KLA.TIR. 

 (PYROPHORtla NOOTIL0OO8.) 



highly luminous in the dark : in short, it is 

 one of the most brilliant of the Fire-flies 

 which inhabit South America and the West 

 India islands. It is asserted that a person 

 may with great ease read the smallest print 

 by the light of one of these insects held be- 

 tween the fingers, and gradually moved 

 along the lines, with the luminous spot* 

 above the letters ; but if eight or ten of them 

 be put into a phial, the light will be suffi- 

 ciently great to admit of writing by it. 

 Oviedo says, that the Indians travel in the 

 night with these insects fixed to their hands 

 and feet ; and that they spin, weave, paint, 

 dance, &c., by their light. In "Prescott's 

 Conquest of Mexico," vol. ii. p. 261., we are 

 told that in 1520, when the Spaniards visited 

 that country, " the air was filled with the 

 "cocuyos," a species of large beetle which 

 emits an intense phosphoric light from its 

 body, strong enough to enable one to read by 

 it. These wandering fires, seen in the dark- 

 ness of the night, were converted, by the 

 excited imaginations of the besieged, into 

 an army with matchlocks ! " Such is the 

 report of an eye-witness. (Bernal Diaz. Hist, 

 de la Conqui&ta, cap. 122.) Several others 

 might be mentioned of inferior size, one of 

 which it may be necessary to describe ; this 

 is the Elater otulutvs, which is of a dark 

 brown colour, and somewhat smaller than 

 the preceding ; distinguished by the thorax 

 being marked on each side by a large, oval, 

 jet black spot, surrounded by a white mar- 

 gin. It is common in North America. 



Such species of the Elater as are natives 

 of this country are much smaller than the 

 exotic ones above mentioned, and but rarely 

 distinguished by any peculiar brilliancy. 



The larvae or grubs of the Elaters live 

 upon wood and roots, and are often very in- 

 jurious to vegetation. Some are confined 

 to old or decaying trees, others devour the 

 roots of herbaceous plants, and are called 

 wire-worms, from their slenderness and un- 

 common hardness. The English wire- worm 

 is said to live, in its feeding or larva state, 

 not less than five years ; during the greater 



