OCTOBER. 323 



selves of this intermission of winter, for they are sporting 

 joyously in the sunshine ; the moths are hurrying to and fro 

 among the leafless bushes and dead weeds, and even butter- 

 flies, more emphatically children of the sun, are enjoying the 

 Indian summer. I have seen the Compton Tortoise, and 

 Camberwell Beauty (Vanessa J. Album, and V. Antiopa) 

 about the house and orchard: and the Violet Tip (Grapta 

 C. Aureum), and Clouded Sulphur (Colias PkilodiceJ, are 

 quite numerous. Indeed, I had a specimen of the former, 

 (the Violet Tip) produced from the chrysalis in my nurse- 

 boxes, this very morning. 



F. Ice was formed about the margins of the Coata- 

 cook a week ago, but the warm weather since has melted 

 it. The edges of a river always freeze some time before 

 the centre, on account of the greater stillness, the attrac- 

 tion of the banks resisting the current, and preventing it 

 from having that force which it has in the middle. For 

 a parallel reason, bends or sudden turns in a river are 

 often dangerous, when all appears covered with solid ice ; 

 the eddies formed in such places tending to prevent the 

 freezing. 



C. There is a wren hopping about the logs at the edge 

 of that swamp. What a cunning little fellow he looks, 

 creeping about with erected tail ! he seems the very essence 

 of activity. 



F. I suspect it is the Winter Wren C Sylvia Troglo- 

 dytes), which Wilson supposes to be the same with the 

 common European wren ; but I judge only from the season, 

 the other species leaving for the south much before this time. 

 All the wrens are too much alike to determine the species 

 without actual examination. 



C. Yonder goes a large wasp with black and yellow 

 rings : it is late for wasps to appear ; but I suppose the new 

 summer has revived it from its torpidity. Looking at the 



