NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 75 



As far as I am a judge, nothing would recommend entomology more 

 than some neat plates that should well express the generic distinctions 

 of insects according to Linnaeus ; for I am well assured that many 

 people would study insects, could they set out with a more adequate 

 notion of those distinctions than can be conveyed at first by words 

 alone.* 



LETTEE XXXV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, 1771. 



DEAR SIR, Happening to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks, 

 I could not help observing that the trains of those magnificent birds 

 appear by no means to be their tails ; those long feathers growing not 

 from their uropygium, but all up their backs. A range of short brown 

 stiff feathers, about six inches long, fixed in the uropygium, is the real 

 tail, and serves as the fulcrum to prop the train, which is long and 

 top-heavy, when set an end. When the train is up, nothing appears of 

 the bird before but its head and neck ; but this would not be the case 

 were those long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be seen by the 

 turkey-cock when in a strutting attitude. By a strong muscular 

 vibration these birds can make the shafts of their long feathers clatter 

 like the swords of a sword-dancer ; they then trample very quick with 

 their feet, and run backwards towards the females. 



I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus cegogropila, 

 taken out of the stomach of a fat ox ; it is perfectly round, and about 

 the size of a large Seville orange ; such are, I think, usually flat. 



mentions that he has employed, successfully, an infusion of wormwood to water 

 the drills, or the application of very dry dust ; but these could scarcely be employed 

 upon a large extent of farm, although useful in a garden. Numerous other appli- 

 cations are recommended, but one of the easiest, and said to be efficacious, is that 

 of smoke by means of weeds, or any other material kindled, so as to be carried 

 across the field by wind. There may be occasional seasons remarkable for 

 drought or cold, and inimical to rapid vegetation, but these are exceptional, and 

 the ordinary remedies will in all probability be unavailing. 



But there is another insect scourge to the turnip-field, which fortunately is not 

 nearly of such frequent occurrence ; it is one of those insects that return at 

 times without warning, the periodicity of which has not been accounted for. It 

 belongs to the same family as the caterpillar which attacks gooseberry-bushes, and 

 which must be so generally known, and both are the larvae of what are called 

 "saw-flies." The caterpillars do the injury, and when they do appear they are 

 in thousands, and soon strip the tender or leaf-part of the turnip plant, which 

 is sometimes in a considerably advanced state when the ravages commence, 

 generally after hoeing has been performed. The surest remedy is hand-picking 

 by children. This is the Athalia centifolia of entomologists ; the popular name 

 of the caterpillar " black dolphin. " 



* There are several works now of this kind, Curtis's "British Entomology," 

 has dissections of the parts from which the generic characters are taken, but this 

 is expensive. Westwood's " Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects," 

 gives capital wood-cut illustrations of the parts, besides other information. This 

 work is in 2 vols. 8vo. 



