740 



Crcatfttrg at 



Mr. Gray has lately published an elabo- 

 rate monograph of the Whales in one of the 

 parts of the Zoology of H. M. SS. Erebus and 

 Terror, and also a Catalogue of the Cetacea 

 in the British Museum. The works of 

 Scoresby and Beale give us large details of 

 what is known about the history and cap- 

 ture of the two most important species in a 

 commercial point of view. [See DOLPHIN, 

 NARWHAL, PORPOISE, &c.] 



WHEATEAB. (Saxicola oenanthe.) This 

 Passerine bird is very generally diffused over 

 the globe, and visits us early in the spring. 

 It frequents new-tilled grounds, and is a close 

 attendant on the plough, in search of insects 

 and small worms, which are its principal 

 food. In length the Wheatear is about five 

 inches and a half. The Bill is black ; eyes 



:HE.) 



hazel ; over the eyes, cheek, and ears is a 

 broad black streak, and above it a line of 

 white ; the top of the head, hinder part of 

 the neck, and the back are bluish gray j the 

 wing-coverts and quills are dusky, edged 

 with rusty white ; the rump is perfectly 

 white, as is also part of the tail ; the rest 

 black ; the under parts are pale buff, tinged 

 with red on the breast : legs and feet black. 

 The Wheatear breeds under shelter of a tuft 

 or clod, in newly-ploughed lands, or under 

 stones, and sometimes in old rabbit burrows : 

 its nesc, which is constructed with great care, 

 is composed of dry grass or moss, mixed with 

 wool, and is lined with feathers, and defended 

 by a sort of covert fixed to the stone or clod 

 under which it is formed : the female gene- 

 rally lays five or six light blue eggs, the 

 larger end encompassed with a circle of a 

 somewhat deeper hue. In some parts of 

 England great numbers are taken in snares 

 made of horse-hair, placed beneath a turf. 

 They leave us about the latter end of August 

 and September, and about that time are seen 

 in great numbers by the sea shore, where, 

 probably, they subsist some little time before 

 they take their departure. 



WHEAT-FLY. (Cecidomyia tritici.) The 

 European Wheat-fly is a two-winged gnat, 

 somewhat resembling a musquito in form, 

 but is very small, being only about one tenth 



of an inch long. Its body is orange-coloured. 

 Its two wings are transparent, and change- 

 able in colour ; they are narrow at the base, 

 rounded at the tip, and are fringed with 

 little hairs on the edges. Its long antennas 

 are composed of twelve little bead-like joints, 

 each encircled with minute hairs. Tow_ards 

 the end of June, or when the wheat is in 

 blossom, these flies appear in swarms in the 

 wheat-fields during the evening, at which 

 time they are very active. The females ge- 

 nerally lay their eggs before nine o'clock at 

 night, thrusting them, by means of a long 

 retractile tube in the end of their bodies, 

 within the chaffy scales of the flowers, in 

 clusters of from two to fifteen, or more. By 

 day they remain at rest on the stems and 

 leaves of the plants, where they are shaded 

 from the heat of the sun. They continue to 

 appear and lay their eggs throughout a 

 period of thirty-nine days. The eggs are 

 oblong, transparent, and of a pale buff colour, 

 and hatch in eight or ten days after they are 

 laid. The young insects, produced from 

 them, are little footless maggots, tapering 

 towards the head, and blunt at the hinder 

 extremity, with the rings of the body some- 

 what wrinkled and bulging at the sides. 

 They are at first perfectly transparent and 

 colourless, but soon take a deep yellow or 

 orange colour. They do not travel from one 

 floret to another, but move in a wriggling 

 manner, and by sudden jerks of the body, 

 when disturbed. As many as forty-seven 

 have been counted in a single floret. It is 

 supposed that they live at first upon the 

 pollen, and thereby prevent the fertilization 

 of the grain. They are soon seen, however, 

 to crowd around the lower part of the germ, 

 and there appear to subsist on the matter 

 destined to have formed the grain. The 

 latter, in consequence of their depredations, 

 becomes shrivelled and abortive ; and, in 

 some seasons, a considerable part of the crop 

 is thereby rendered worthless. The maggots, 

 when fully grown, are nearly one eighth of 

 an inch long. It is said that the maggots 

 quit the ears of the wheat by the first of 

 August, descend to the ground, and go into 

 it to the depth of half an inch. It is pro- 

 bable that there they remain unchanged 

 through the winter, and having finished their 

 transformations, come out of the ground in 

 the winged form in the spring, when the 

 wheat is about to blossom. Dr. Asa Fitch 

 has entered into the history, transformation, 

 and habits of this insect with great detail in 

 the sixth volume of the Transactions of the 

 New York State Agricultural Society (1847). 

 Jealous for the honour of his country, he has 

 tried to prove that it is not a native of North 

 America, and was unknown there anterior 

 to the revolutionary war ; but there is some 

 doubt whether the Wheat-fly of North Ame- 

 rica is not a distinct species from the Eu- 

 ropean one. Mr. Say has named it Cecido- 

 myia destructor. [See HESSIAN-FLY.] 



WHIDAH FINCH. (Fwfoa.) A genus 

 of beautiful birds, inhabiting Western Africa, 

 and particularly abundant in the kingdom 

 of Whidah, whence their name ; but which 

 has been corrupted, and is frequently written 



