MAY 
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siderable tree, and has a spreading body^ and a handsome 
outline^ but its foHage is too thin to have that massy richness 
which gives so much beauty to many trees. Its wood is 
hard^ of a fine grain^, and susceptible of a poUsh, and from 
these quaUties, and its colour, a dark red^ it is in demand for 
furniture^ which sometimes has no small resemblance to ma- 
hogany. The red cherry^ whose fruit is very dissimilar in 
colour and flavour^ is, I believe^ a distinct species ( P, Bo- 
realis ) , Except by the fruit, they can scarcely be distin- 
guished from each other : the red, however, rarely grows to 
any size. 
C — In coming home this evening, I saw a bat in flight : 
I should scarcely think there are yet moths enough abroad 
to support him. 
F. — Though moths are his favourite food, I do not think 
he altogether confines himself to that diet, but occasionally 
makes a meal of other insects : and an entomologist of his 
skill and industry, no doubt, can manage to capture many 
specimens, even at this season. 
C. — Under large stones and the like, I find many pass- 
ages, turning in every direction, made in the surface of the 
ground, about half an inch deep : in some of them there is a 
great quantity of soft dried grass : as much as a man could 
hold in both hands, I have taken out. 
F, — They are the burrows and nests of the Short-tailed 
Field-mouse f Arvicola Fennsylv aniens) , a destructive little 
animal, which every farmer kills at every opportunity. In 
ploughing grass land, we frequently disturb them ; and as 
they cannot run very fast, though they are nimble in creep- 
ing into crevices and under the clods, they very often suffer 
death. The farmer's animosity against them arises from 
their fecundity, and their appetite for grain and Indian 
