JDtcttcmari) of 



$aturr. 585 



are the most useful to Man. In the first 

 place, they furnish him with nearly all the 

 niiiiul flesh which he consumes. Some of 

 them serve him as beasts of burden ; and 

 others supply him with milk, tallow, hides, 

 horns, and other products most important 

 to his comfort, and even to his subsistence. 

 Many of them have from the earliest periods 

 been domesticated, and have accompanied 

 Man in his gradual diffusion over the globe ; 

 while some, as the Rein-deer and Camel, 

 are invaluable in certain localities, to which 

 they are expressly and admirably adapted. 



RUSTIC [MOTHS]. A name given by 

 collectors to species of Moths, of the genera 

 Charceas, Rusina, Caradrina, and Segetia. 



RUTELnXE. A group of Coleopterous 

 insects, in some respects allied to the Melo- 

 lonthidas and Cetoniadae. The body is 

 shorter, rounder, and more polished than in 

 the Scarabseidae, and ornamented with bril- 

 liant colours. The head and thorax are iden- 

 tical, and not cornuted in either sex ; the 

 maxillae are scaly, truncated at the tip, with 

 five or six strong teeth. The mesosternum is 

 often porrected, the scutellum large, and the 

 tarsal claws unequal-sized. With few excep- 

 tions, they are confined to the warmer parts 

 of America. Dr. Thaddeus Harris has de- 

 scribed a well-known American species. He 

 says, " One of the most common and the 

 most beautiful of the Tree-beetles of this 

 country is the Areoda lanigera, or woolly 

 Areoda, sometimes also called the GOLD- 

 SMITH-BEETLE. It is about nine-tenths of 

 an inch in length, broad oval in shape, of a 

 lemon-yellow colour above, glittering like 

 burnished gold on the top of the head and 

 thorax ; the under side of the body is copper- 

 coloured, and thickly covered with whitish 

 wool ; and the legs are brownish-yellow, or 

 brassy, shaded with green. These fine beetles 

 begin to appear in Massachusetts about the 

 middle of May, and continue generally till 

 the 20th of June. In the morning and even- 

 ing twilight they come forth from their re- 

 treats, and fly about with a humming and 

 rustling sound among the branches of trees, 

 the tender leaves of which they devour. 

 Pear-trees are particularly subject to their 

 attacks, but the elm, hickory, poplar, oak, 

 and probably also other kinds of trees, are 

 frequented and injured by them. During 

 the middle of the day they remain at rest 

 upon the trees, clinging to the under sides 

 of the leaves ; and endeavour to conceal 

 themselves by drawing two or three leaves 

 together, and holding them in this position 

 with their long unequal claws. In some 

 seasons they occur in profusion, and then 

 may be observed in great quantities by 

 shaking the young trees on which they are 

 lodged in the day-time, as they do not at- 

 tempt to fly when thus disturbed, but fall at 

 once to the ground. The larvae of these 

 insects are not known ; probably they live 

 in the ground upon the roots of plants." 



SABELLA. A marine animal, belonging 

 to the second order of A nnelida, which forms 

 its tube or shell partly by a calcareous ex- 

 udation from its own body, and partly by 



granules of clay or fine mud. The species 

 are rather large, and their branchial tufts 

 extremely delicate. 



SABLE. (Mustda zibeUina.) Of all the 

 Weasel tribe this is the most celebrated, not 

 only on account of the richness of its fur, 

 but from the horrors of the chace, which is 

 carried on in the depth of winter among 

 mountains covered with ice and snow, in 

 the coldest and most desolate regions into 

 which man has yet penetrated. The Sable 

 has long whiskers, rounded ears, large feet, 

 the soles of wliich are covered with fur, 

 white claws, and a long bushy tail. The 

 general colour of the fur is brown, more or 

 less brilliant, with the lower parts of the 

 throat and neck grayish. They resemble 

 the rest of the weasel kind in vivacity and 

 agility ; in sleeping by day, and hunting 

 their prey by night : they usually live in 

 the depths of the forest, in holes of the earth, 

 or beneath the roots of trees ; and some- 

 times, like the marten, they form their nests 

 in the boughs of trees. The females bring 

 forth from three to five young at a time, 

 which they suckle for a month or five weeks. 

 They inhabit all the northern parts of Eu- 

 rope and Asia ; and as prodigious numbers 

 are killed in Siberia, their skins form a 

 very considerable article of commerce with 

 the Russians. 



Sables' skins are in the highest perfection 

 betwixt the months of November and Janu- 

 ary ; accordingly, at the commencement of 

 the winter, the Sable hunters assemble in 

 very considerable companies, and proceed 

 along the great rivers in boats, taking with 

 them provisions for three or four months. 

 When they arrive at their place of ren- 

 dezvous, the different parties, each under 

 the direction of a leader, take up their re- 

 spective quarters, where they form huts of 

 trees, and bank up the snow round them : 

 near these they lay their snares ; and then 

 advancing farther, they set more, still build- 

 ing new huts in every quarter, and return- 

 ing successively to every old one, to visit the 

 traps, from which they take the game and 

 skin it. Their snares or traps are generally 

 a sort of pitfalls, with loose boards placed 

 over them, baited with fish or flesh : but when 

 Sables grow scarce, the hunters trace them 

 to their holes through the new-fallen snow, 

 place nets at their entrances, and frequently 

 watch two or three days for the appearance 

 of the animals. Other modes of taking them 

 are also resorted to ; sometimes fire-arms are 

 used, and sometimes cross-bows. When the 

 nature of the employment, and the intense 

 cold which the Sable hunters must endure 

 in the depth of a Siberian winter, are con- 

 sidered, we think there are few persons 

 dwelling in more congenial climes who are 

 likely to envy them the sport. 



SACCOPHARYNX AMPULLACEUS, 

 or BOTTLE-FISH. This anguilliform fish 

 belongs to the singular genus Saccopharynx, 

 in which the body, capable of being inflated 

 like a sack or leathern bottle, is terminated 

 by a very long and slender whip-like tail, 

 edged above and below by the narrow dorsal 

 and anal which unite at its tip. It is thus 



