82 ROBERT POCOCK. 



"Sunday, 23rd. Went with Mr. P. and Mr. H. 

 towards Thong. Caught four brimstone butterflies (P. 

 Rhamni). Saw two toads (one dead, the largest ever 

 seen by Mr. P. and H.). They were harmless and no 

 ways poisonous, I having kept them for amuse- 

 ment : their mouths are not glued together as some 

 think, but they feed on scarabgeus and flies, which they 

 take in by darting out their tongues with surprising 

 swiftness. Mr. H. is a fellow of the Linnaean Society ; 

 also Mr. P., the gentleman I visited on the 12th 

 instant. They took several scarce flies and insects. 

 With them were two lads (sons), who were well- versed 

 in natural history ; they knew the various caterpillars 

 and what they would turn into. 



"August 23rd (continued). Met with Mr. Smithers. 

 Discoursed on the turnip-fly. Evidence of Mr. Smithers' 

 nephew to his uncle is that the fly on turnips 

 attacks on the seed-leaf appearing, and is not a 

 beetle but a small, minute brownish fly, with long 

 wings. They made their appearance about July 20th, 

 since which time they had destroyed three crops of 

 turnips. They were seen preceding the plough 

 as it moved on, and do not fly far before they alight. 

 They do not confine themselves to turnips only but will 

 attack cabbages. Dung used as manure is not the occa- 

 sion of them, because the field attacked was not dunged 

 but manured with sprats in the spring. Sprats and 

 fish have been within two or three years past much 

 used as manure about Gravesend, and with success. 

 Sulphur and lime (he said) was said to be a remedy 

 for the fly but he had not used it. The fly was not 

 much seen when the wind blew (probably it gets under 

 clods for shelter). The fly, which is of the same 



