MAY 
137 
F. — These beetles answer the same useful purpose as the 
vultures and jackals of tropical countries : that of quickly 
removing putrid animal substances. The SilphidcB, in par- 
ticular^ are very useful in this respect : as soon as animal 
substances become fetid, these beetles throng to it from all 
quarters : whether the knowledge is derived from the sight, 
as in the case of the vultures, or from the smell, I do not 
know, but I suspect the latter. A curious practice prevails 
here, of throwing the carcass of a lamb, when one dies, into 
the limbs of an apple-tree in the orchard : it is true this 
instance is an exception, but the custom is a general one, 
though of the origin or object of it, I have not the most dis- 
tant idea. 
C. — The beautiful green Sparklers ( Cicindela Sex-gut- 
tata )y and a purplish species (Cicindela Proteus), fly about 
dusty roads. The former are of a most brilliant dazzling 
green, if the rays of light falling on them are reflected to the 
eye at an acute angle ; but if it be obtuse, they appear of 
a deep and fine blue. The same phenomenon occurs in the 
brilliant colour of the Emerald Agrion of Alabama ( Agrion 
VirginicaJi and Wilson- notices exactly the same thing in 
the plumage of the Indigo-bird ( Fringilla Cyanea), These 
Tiger Beetles, as they are called, are, I suppose, the most 
agile of all coleopterous insects ; their legs are very long 
and slender, and they run with such swiftness, that they 
seem to glide along the ground rather than to crawl ; and 
on the approach of a footstep they take wing with as much 
wildness as any fly, but only for a short distance, when they 
alight again. They can be caught only with a net, and it 
is a difficult matter even then. 
F. — Many trees have burst their leaf-buds, and new ones 
are opening every day. Yonder poplar woods have a pleas- 
