74 ORDER COLEOPTERA. 



the on tie won dies, and the female perforates the soil to the depth of a foot, where -he 

 J'-;.' >s ts 11 i ggs : thej are then abandoned, and she returns to the surface to remain a 

 short tin):', when she als i perishes. The eggs are said to hatch in about fourteen days. The 

 grubs are whitish, and provided with six legs situated mar the head, and a pair of strong 

 jaws : their heads are brown. These ar.' the grubs that are frequently ploughed up in old 

 fields, of a grayish white c ilor, an inch or more in length and a quarter of an inch thick : 

 they lie Hexed in the form of a circle. They live during the summer near the surface, 

 rabsisting upon the roots of plants, which they devour in large quantities : as whiter 

 approaches, thej descend below the reach of frost, where they become torpid. Three or 

 four seasons are spent in this way, till finally thej form a ball of an oval shape, in which 

 they enclose themselves and undergo their transformation. 



The ravages of this grub maybe much diminished by allowing crows and jays to 

 frequent the gr tunds infested bj them : indeed it is the must feasible way of getting rid 

 of them ; an 1 alth nigh most farmers and gardeners carry on an exterminating war with 

 crows and blackbirds, yet the e bli ckcoated vagabonds, as Wilson calls them, are by no 

 m tans such great ras -als a< the} are represented : they have redee ming qualities. and the 

 destruction of grubs and wireworms are real benefits which they confer upon the farmer 

 The beetles themselves are devoured by skunks. 



The beetles of this genus have been very abundant at distant intervals : almost in- 

 credible- accounts are given of their numbers, especially of the European specii s. 



\ aong the numerous remedies recommended for destroying the larva, ploughing, no 

 d »ubt, would have the effect of thr >u [ng many of them within the reach of frosl ; but if 

 d me too early, they would have time to bury themselves again. The larvse and perfect 

 insects are frequentlj seen when the ground is broken up in the spring j and many are 

 then destroy: ind blackbird-, which follow the ploughman to gather whatever 



may be exposed suitable for tl nance : tiny are also destroyed by foxes, weasels, 



owl-, and. aoc rding to Dr. 11 onus, the skunk. 



The following extracts are from Loudok's Magazine of Natural History, Vol. vi, p. 

 142 -4 : the ro >k is a specii - of crow. 



'A strong prejudice is fell b\ man;, pi r- ms against rooks, on account of their destroying 

 grain an - ; and so I'.u- is this carried, that I know persons who offer a reward for 



ev< ry r"ok that is kilh d on their land ; yet so mistaken do I deem them, as to consider 

 that no living creature i- so -< rviceable to the farmer, except the live st< <k he keeps i n 

 hi- firm, i- the r ok. Iu the I ■! of mj native place is a rookery in which it Is 



lated there are ten th lusand rooks : that 1 lb. of fo d a week is a very moderate al- 

 1 :\ ince for i ich bird : and that nin -tenth- of their food consist oJ w< rms, insects, and 

 lame : for although they do c Dsiderable damage for a fen weeks in seedtime and a 

 i harvest, particular!] in backward seasons, yet a very large proportion of 



thjir i> id, e\ sn at th - ■ sis'sof insects and worms, which (if we except a few 



