INSECTS. 7 



3 



I also heard from marshy or watery places a 

 mixed sound or concert, which was incessant and 

 unvarying — neither pleasant nor disagreeable, 

 but increasing, upon the whole, the solemnity oi 

 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 the 

 lacerta kind ? 



On the canal I saw in the day time continual- 

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

 of Hbellula, 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 hirundines. The martin or hi- 

 rundo purpurea, feeds its young 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 counti \ 

 and its unremitting industry in its dirty operation?, 

 reminds one of the incessant abuse of the Bcurrilotti 

 blockheads which infest the republic of letter*. 



