OCTOBER 
323 
selves of this intermission of winter,, for they are sporting 
joyously in the sunshine ; the moths are hurrying to and fro 
among the leafless bushes and dead weeds, and even butter- 
flies, more emphatically children of the sun, are enjoying the 
Indian summer. I have seen the Compton Tortoise, and 
Camberwell Beauty f Vanessa J. Album, and V, A?itiopa J 
about the house and orchard : and the Violet Tip f Grapta 
C, Aureum ), and Clouded Sulphur ( Colias Philodice )^ are 
quite numerous. Indeed, I had a specimen of the former, 
(the Violet Tip) produced from the chrysalis in my nurse- 
boxes, this very morning. 
F. — ■ Ice was formed about the margins of the Coata- 
cook a week ago, but the warm weather since has melted 
it. The edges of a river always freeze some time before 
the centre, on account of the greater stillness, the attrac- 
tion of the banks resisting the current, and preventing it 
from having that force which it has in the middle. For 
a parallel reason, bends or sudden turns in a river are 
often dangerous, when all appears covered with solid ice ; 
the eddies formed in such places tending to prevent the 
freezing. 
C. — There is a wren hopping about the logs at the edge 
of that swamp. What a cunning little fellow he looks, 
creeping about with erected tail I he seems the very essence 
of activity. 
F» — I suspect it is the Winter Wren ( Sylvia Troglo- 
dytes ), which Wilson supposes to be the same with the 
common European wren ; but I judge only from the season, 
the other species leaving for the south much before this time. 
All the wrens are too much alike to determine the species 
without actual examination. 
C. — Yonder goes a large wasp with black and yellow 
rings : it is late for wasps to appear ; but I suppose the new 
summer has revived it from its torpidity. Looking at the 
