MAY. 107 



C. Besides these, I found the handsome Purple Carabus 



(Carabus Catena) ; and a Rosy Casefly (Phryganea ?). 



I also found two of a broad- winged Ichneumon (Ophion Lu- 

 teum), a Green Byrrhus (Byrrhus Varius), and a Black 

 Water-measurer (Gerris), sprawling on a brook : these three 

 are Newfoundland insects. These, with one or two others 

 of little note, are all I have collected. 



F. What goes yonder ? That is a butterfly we have 

 not seen this season before. It is the Forked (Vanessa 

 Furcillata), a species common enough here, but in New- 

 foundland the most abundant of all the butterfly tribe. Mr* 

 Say speaks of having met with it in his travels, "several 

 times," as if it were quite uncommon in the States ; and this 

 is not the only instance in which insects common with us 

 are marked by the American naturalists as great rarities. 



C. It is rather a pretty butterfly, though it has not 

 much variety of colour. Its larva, I believe, feeds on the 

 nettle. 



F. I perceive many persons have turned their cattle out 

 into the pastures, but it is little that they can pick up yet ; 

 they eat a good deal of the dead and bleached grass of last 

 year, which fills their stomachs, but yields them no nutri- 

 ment. The length of time necessary to stable his cattle 

 is one of the greatest drawbacks to a farmer's profit in 

 this country. We put up our cattle in October, and it is 

 the latter part of May before they can support themselves in 

 the fields, so that we have to provide dried fodder for our 

 stock for upwards of seven months of the year. On this 

 account we are compelled to leave a very large portion of our 

 farms in grass, which otherwise might be more profitably 

 put under tillage. 



C. But hay usually bears a good price ; is it not there- 

 fore as profitable to mow land as to till it^ ? 



