INSECTS. 7L» 



I also heard from marshy or watery places a 

 mixed sound or concert, which was incessant and 

 unvarying — neither pleasant nor disagreeably 

 but increasing, upon the whole, the solemnity of 

 an American night by the variety of its music. 

 This I was told was the work of frogs or toads — 

 but of this I must confess that I entertain doubts. 

 May it not have proceeded from animals of tiie 

 lacerta kind ? 



On the canal I saw in the day time continual- 

 ly on the wing, and in pursuit of prey, a species 

 of libellula, or dragon fly, which is vulgarly cal- 

 led the devil's darning needle. The female drops 

 her eggs into the water, which are hatched into 

 larvae, or caterpillars — and they continue in that 

 and the pupa state two years before they emerge 

 complete insects. This ravenous insect is in turn 

 preyed upon by hir undines. The martin or hi-, 

 rundo purpurea, feeds its 3^oung with it, and the 

 ground below its cage is covered with its mutila- 

 ted wings and members, scattered about like the 

 broken remains of dead bodies in the den of 

 Cyclops. The curious insect which prepares a 

 place of deposit for its ova by rolling dung into 

 balls, is sometimes to be found in this country, 

 and its unremitting industry in its dirty operations, 

 reminds one of the incessant abuse of the scurrilous 

 blockheads which infest the republic of letters. 



