MAY^ 
107 
C, — Besides these, I found the handsome Purple Carabus 
( Carabus Catena J ; and a Rosy Casefly f Fhryganea 
I also found two of a broad- winged Ichneumon ( Ophion Lti- 
teitm J, a Green Byrrhus f Byrrhus V arius )j and a Black 
Water-measurer ( Gerris ), sprawling on a brook : these three 
are Newfoundland insects. These^ with one or two others 
of little note^ are all I have collected. 
F, — What goes yonder ? That is a butterfly we have 
not seen this season before. It is the Forked (Vanessa 
FurciUata ), a species common enough here^ but in New- 
foundland the most abundant of all the butterfly tribe. Mr- 
Say speaks of having met with it in his travels, ^''several 
times/' as if it were quite uncommon in the States ; and this 
is not the only instance in which insects common with us 
are marked by the American naturalists as great rarities. 
C. — It is rather a pretty butterfly, though it has not 
much variety of colour. Its larva^ I believe^ feeds on the 
nettle. 
F, — I perceive many persons have turned their cattle out 
into the pastures, but it is little that they can pick up yet ; 
they eat a good deal of the dead and bleached grass of last 
year, which fills their stomachs, but yields them no nutri- 
ment. The length of time necessary to stable his cattle 
is one of the greatest drawbacks to a farmer's profit in 
this country. We put up our cattle in October, and it is 
the latter part of May before they can support themselves in 
the fields, so that we have to provide dried fodder for our 
stock for upwards of seven months of the year. On this 
account we are compelled to leave a very large portion of our 
farms in grass, which otherwise might be more profitably 
put under tillage. 
C. — But hay usually bears a good price ; is it not there- 
fore as profitable to mow land as to till it ? 
