CANADA. 101 



" many beetles, among which was a Btiprestis, like one I 

 " caught at Three Rivers, and several bright red beetles 

 " new to me, which have some characters of Lucanus. 

 " There were many oval cases, as large as pigeons' eggs, 

 " containing exuvice of some beetle, and in one I found a 

 ■ Scarabans, as that of 8th inst, complete though decayed. 

 11 In another rotten tree I found several Juli, some of 

 "which were of gigantic size. While in the wood, I 

 "heard a loud hum, and looking round saw what I took 

 " to be a large insect, but viewing it more intently, I 

 " saw it was a humming-bird of an olive colour, poising 

 " itself before some tubular flowers, and inserting its bill 

 " for an instant, then whisking to another like lightning ; 

 " while I stood motionless, it came and sucked flowers 

 " within a yard of me, but on the least motion was off 

 " to a distance. I saw the star crane-fly of Newfound- 

 " lancJW On coming home I found to my sorrow that, 

 " having put the large chafer of yesterday into my store- 

 " box, pinned but not dead, he had got his pin out of 

 "the cork, and had been amusing himself during my 

 "absence, carrying his pin about the box and biting 

 " other insects. He has spoiled a pearl-border fritillary, 

 " a tiger-moth, and, what I regret most of all, he has bitten 

 " two of the wings off the great Hemerobius of 30th ult." 

 During the winter of 1835-36, he made his first serious 

 attempt at book-making, The Entomology of Newfound- 

 land. The manuscript is still in existence, for, though he 

 completed it, he made no attempt to find a publisher for it. 

 Indeed, his lack of systematic knowledge, and of the then 

 present condition of zoology, rendered it probably what 

 would have been considered by London savants as unfit 

 for publication, although the amount of actual observation 

 recorded at first hand, occasional anecdotes, and descriptions 

 of habitats around Carbonear constitute a store from 



