508 Cfje Crcatfitrn at Natural ^ 



depressed, and of equal breadth throughout; ' no doubt. Four of the birds there figured 

 the prothorax large, flat, and quadrate ; the were taken in the county of Norfolk in the 

 eyes prominent and globose, and between mouth of September, 1841. It is an error, 

 them three ocelli in a triangle ; the man- however, to imagine that the Honey-buzzard 

 dibles small, flat, and membranous ; and j does not breed in this country, or that it so 

 the antennae nearly as long as the body, and ' rarely happens as to render it necessary for 

 multi-articulate. The insects belonging to | naturalists to refer to so distant a date as the 

 this family frequent damp marshy situa- I year 1780 : several recent instances of its ni- 

 tions, and the borders of lakes and rivers, dification in different parts of this country 

 resting upon stones, palings, and plants ! could easily be given ; the usual season for 

 growing close to the water's edge ; they are j it being about the beginning of June. The 

 sluggish in their movements, and the larger j nests are chiefly composed of sticks and 

 species are esteemed an excellent bait for j twigs, and made very shallow, except just 

 trout. In their preparatory states they where the eggs are deposited ; and the situa- 

 reside in the water, the larvae being naked, ] tion chosen for the nest is generally on one 



i not enclosed in a case, and in general form I of the largest branches of an oak. 



| resembling the imago, except ^ m wanting | pERNA A of Conchiferous M ol- 



much in this coimtrv by Mr. Nelman and !sca the shell of which is sub-equivalve, 



I abroad bv M. Pictet'of Geneva ; the latter irregular, compressed, and fo haceous , hinge 

 has published their history with much , straight and broad, divided into parallel 

 detail grooves ; bosses small ; margins very brittle. 



They are mostly from India, the Cape Verde 



PERN, or HONEY-BUZZARD. (Perni 



They are mostly from India, the Cape Verde 

 Islands, &c., and generally found adhering to 



,, ,\ TM.?. n of tht PlPar,Y,rf cks deep in the sea ; considerable clusters 

 , trSshMrds'of^y ^ather'of such being fluently found attached firmly to 



1 ^dSSESSSSSt chLV^stfiu^ed^^he^raffintn^s: 



on^ioi^MdpaaieTi^e^itorto number, and regularity of the grooves in the 

 bill is black, the irides yellow, the crown of }" n 8 e and the sinus, for the passage of the 

 the head is ash-coloured, and the cheeks are b 3' sslis - Its shape recals to mmd that of a 

 1 covered with small feathers. The neck, back, gammon of bacon : hence the name, 

 scapulars, and covert feathers of the wings, i PETALOCERA. A tribe of Coleopterous 

 are of a deep brown ; the breast and belly i nsec ts, comprising those which have an- 

 are white, marked with dusky spots pointing tenure terminated by a foliated mass. The 

 downwards ; the tail is long, of a dull brown mandibles are very variable in their struc- 

 colour, and marked with three broad dusky t ure, corresponding with the habits of the 

 i bars, between each of which there are two or var i ou s groups ; and the head and thorax 

 i three of the same colour, but narrower: the o f tne ma i es arc armed with strange horns 

 legs are short, strong, and thick ; and the or protuberances, of which it is difficult to 

 claws are large and black. The Honey conceive the uses. The body is generally 

 Buzzard generally lays two eggs, blotched more or less oval and convex, the legs robust, 

 . over with a fainter and a deeper red: it an d the anterior tibiae dentated on the 

 j builds its nest on small twigs, which it covers . outside. In many of the insects, especially 

 with wool. It feeds on bees, wasps, &c. j tn0 se which feed upon leaves, the internal 



In an interesting article on the changes edge of t he mandibles is formed into a broad 

 which take place in the plumage of this bird, horny p i ate , w i t h various transverse chan- 

 communicated by W. R. Fisher, Esq., of ne i g( we u formed for masticating. These 

 Great Yarmouth, to the " Zoologist, the insects subsist on vegetable substances, some 

 writer says, " As the Honey Buzzard has, i while in a state of decay, and others upon 

 I believe, never, except in the instance re- I f resh i eaves and flowers, their larvre devour- . 

 corded by White of Selbourne, in the year i in , the roots of grass, &c., and often doing 

 1780, been satisfactorily ascertained to have ; much damage. The head of the larva is ! 

 bred in this country, British ornithologists generally large and horny, convex in front, 

 are deprived of this means of watching the , with t he top curved ; the mandibles are 

 changes by which it ultimately assumes the j st rong, flat on the anterior surface, concave 

 j adult dress. For even if it were possible to j on the posterior; the legs are robust, with 

 i procure the eggs or young from those coun- | four j o i nts , terminated bv a strong hook, 

 tries of the East to which this species is said ' Some o f these larvae are several years in at- 

 to be indigenous, the process would be so 



tedious and expensive, that few naturalists 

 would be willing to undertake it ; and the dif- 

 ficulty of rearing young birds, and the many 

 casualties towhich they are subject during the 

 process of moulting, are well known." Six 

 specimens are delineated ; and the grada- 

 tions from a dark clove brown in the plumage 

 of one, to the almost pure white (except of 

 the wings and tail) in another, are truly re- 

 markable : but that these striking differences 

 are partly to be attributed to certain peri- 

 odical changes, and partly arising from the 

 difference of age and sex, there can be 



taining their full size ; they then form, in 

 situations where they reside, an oval cocoon, 

 composed of earth, excrements, and morsels ! 

 of gnawed wood, &c. agglutinated together, i 

 The pupae are of the ordinary form ; but 

 the sheaths of the lower wings are rather 

 longer than those of the elytra. As exam- 

 ples of this tribe we may cite the COCKCHA- 

 FER, STAG-BEETLE, ROSE-BEETLE, SCARA- 

 B.EUS, &c. 



PETALURA. A genus of gigantic Dra- 

 gon-flies, found in New Holland and New i 

 Zealand ; a closely allied species of which j 



