MAY. 137 



F. These beetles answer the same useful purpose as the 

 vultures and jackals of tropical countries : that of quickly 

 removing putrid animal substances. The Silphidce, in par- 

 ticular, are very useful in this respect : as soon as animal 

 substances become fetid, these beetles throng to it from all 

 quarters : whether the knowledge is derived from the sight, 

 as in the case of the vultures, or from the smell, I do not 

 know, but I suspect the latter. A curious practice prevails 

 here, of throwing the carcass of a lamb, when one dies, into^ 

 the limbs of an apple-tree in the orchard : it is true this 

 instance is an exception, but the custom is a general one, 

 though of the origin or object of it, I have not the most dis- 

 tant idea. 



C. The beautiful green Sparklers (Cicindela Sex-gut- 

 tata), and a purplish species (Cicindela Proteus), fly about 

 dusty roads. The former are of a most brilliant dazzling 

 green, if the rays of light falling on them are reflected to the 

 eye at an acute angle j but if it be obtuse, they appear of 

 a deep and fine blue. The same phenomenon occurs in the 

 brilliant colour of the Emerald Agrion of Alabama ( Agrion 

 Virginica), and Wilson notices exactly the same thing in 

 the plumage of the Indigo-bird (Fringilla Cyanea). These 

 Tiger Beetles, as they are called, are, I suppose, the most 

 agile of all coleopterous insects ; their legs are very long 

 and slender, and they run with such swiftness, that they 

 seem to glide along the ground rather than to crawl ; and 

 on the approach of a footstep they take wing with as much 

 wildness as any fly, but only for a short distance, when they 

 alight again. They can be caught only with a net, and it 

 is a difficult matter even then. 



F. Many trees have burst their leaf-buds, and new ones 

 are opening every day. Yonder poplar woods have a pleas- 



