JOtrttrjmary of 



$atttre. 661 



angular spots. This insect, like the rest of 

 its genus, is seen during the middle and the 

 decline of summer, generally in the hottest 

 part of the day, and chiefly abounding in 

 woods and pastures. It is extremely trouble- 

 some to cattle, piercing their skin with the 

 lancets of its proboscis, and sucking the 

 blood in such a manner as to cause consider- 

 able pain. It proceeds from a large, dusky- 

 yellowish larva, marked by transverse black i 

 Ish rings : it resides under ground, in moist 

 meadows, &c., and changes to a cylindric, 

 brownish chrysalis ; out of which, in about 

 a month, proceeds the perfect insect. 



on the side, besides one on the top. Both 

 male and female are generally seen near the 

 nest, uttering a shrill, incessant, monoto- 

 nous chirp, particularly in the morning and 

 evening. 



SYNBRANCHUS. The name of a sub- 

 division of the Muramidce, or Eel-shaped 

 fishes ; characterized by having the gill- 

 opening entirely single, no pectorals, fins 

 fatty, head thick, snout rounded, operculum 

 cartilaginous, with six rays, stomach and 

 anal perfectly straight, and bladder long 

 and narrow. They are found chiefly in tro- 



TABBY [MOTHST. A name applied by 

 collectors to Moths of the genus A glaum. 

 TACHYPETES. [See FHIOATE-BIBD.] 



TADORNA. A genus of web-footed birds, 

 founded on the Anas Tadorna of Linnaeus. 

 [See SIIELDBAKE.] 



TADPOLE. The Frog in its nascent 

 state. [See FROG.] 



TADPOLE-FISH, or LESSER FORKED 

 BEARD. (Barbus minor.) A somewhat 



SYRPIIID.E. A family of Dipterous nre flgh of the Gadidce family, measuring 

 insects, generally of a moderate or large about a foot in length, and in its general 

 size, and of variegated colours. Many of , f orm an d colour bearing some resemblance 

 the species resemble humble-bees, wasps, Ac., I to the imperfect animal from whom the 

 and are frequently mistaken for them by . name { 3 derived. The head is very large, 

 the inexperienced. The proboscis is long, obtuse, and flattened on the crown ; the 

 membranous, elbowed near the base, termi- j m ou th is wide ; under the chin there it a 

 nated by two large lobes, and the sucker I gma n conical barb or feeler ; and the lip* 

 enclosed in an upper canal ; a long horny j are rounded and wliite. Tail wedge-shaped i 

 upper lip. hollow, and notched at the tip j ' gc a i e g small. It has been taken on the 

 a pair of slender acute maxillae, and a slender Scottish coast : it spawns in April, and feeds 

 pointed tongue ; the head is hemispherical, on gma u insects ; but it is too scarce for na- 

 and covered for the most part by the eyes, i turalists to be much acquainted with its 

 especially in the males : the front of the | history, 

 head is often produced into a kind of beak, 



SYNDACTYLI. The name given to a 

 tribe of Perching Birds, including those 

 which have the external and middle toe 

 united as far as the second joint ; the word 

 Si/ruluctyli indicating the adhesion of the 

 fingers. The plumage is generally of a 

 brilliant blue or green colour ; and very 

 smooth and glossy. [For examples, ace Hi. i.- 

 i. ATI.K and KINGFISUEB.] 



SYNGNATHUS. [See PIPE-FISH.] 



T2ENIA. An intesti 

 to a numerous and, un 



, . 



nal worm, belonging 

 fortunately, but too 



receiving the proboscis when it is folded in 

 inaction. They are all fond of flowers : they 



fly with amazing swiftness, and many of well-known a genus. Tamia sohum is cha- 

 them, if disturbed from their favourite ! racterized by an extremely long body, flat, 

 haunts even for a number of times, will and composed of a number of joints or arti- 

 return and continue to hover there again, culations, which sometimes amount to se- 

 The larvffi of the typical genus Syrphtis feed : veral hundred ; the whole animal occasion- 

 upon all kinds of Aphides, which they often ally attaining the length of five yards or 

 hold up in the air, and suck very quickly : more. They are thinner anteriorly, and 

 the body of these larvos is of an elongate- i generally have a square head, with four 

 conic form, uneven, and sometimes spinose. small suckers. Their numerous segments 

 When ready to metamorphose, they fix are all connected by the nutritive canal, 

 themselves to leaves or other substances by which runs from one end to the other ; but 

 a glutinous secretion ; the body shorten*, the reproductive apparatus is repeated in 

 and its anterior end, which was the slender- each division. That only one can exist in 

 eat, becomes the thickest. The larvae of the one human body at the same time is a vulgar 

 genus Volucella are also insectivorous, but error. Of all intestinal worms they are the 

 reside in the nests of Humble-bees and most dangerous, and the most difficult to 

 Wasps, upon the larvae of which they sub- , expel. 

 8ist - T^ENID^E. The name given to a family 



TAB ANUS: TABANnXffi. A genus ' of Acanthopterygious fishes, distinguished by 

 and family of Dipterous insects, comprising their lengthened and flattened bodies, and 

 various large flies, pre-eminently distin- having very small scales. [See RIBBON- 



ished for the tormenting powers which i FISH.] 



TAGUAN. A 



Flying Squirrel. 



species of Pteromys, or 



different species possess ; piercing the skin, 

 in order to suck the blood, of various quad- 

 rupeds, wild and domesticated. The TA- 

 BANIIS BOVINUS of Linnams is the largest of TAILOR BIRD. A name applied to 

 the British species. It has the appearance ' more than one species of soft-billed Indian 

 of a very large pale brown fly, marked on i Birds, allied to the Warblers. Some of them, 

 the back by a series of large, whitish, tri- | if not all, belong to Dr. Horsficld's genera 



