the adjacent fields now in search of food, and at once attracts notice by the hood it wears. Where does it raise its family? does it ever breed in England? Why does it come here at all?

Migration is almost as wonderful as hybernatiou. Before it was so well established a fact as it is in the present day, hybernation was much more extensively allowed. The Swallow tribe in particular attracted most notice, as was but natural, and they were all firmly believed to spend the winter in this country, hidden up in caves and rock crevices, old buildings and places similar to those where we find the bats; some thought even in the bottom of lakes and rivers buried in the mud. Dr. Johnson in his usual dogmatic style, once remarked in the course of conversation-" Swallows certainly sleep all the winter, a number of them conglobulate together by flying round and round, and then all in a heap throw themselves under water and lie in the bed of a river." And Gilbert White of Selborne, could never bring himself to totally disbelieve in their hybernation. Nor has the belief died out in the present day, for there was a discussion about it in the pages of "Science Gossip" only a few months ago. But this is rather digressing.

There is often much talk about the " mysterious instinct which guides birds in their migrations. I confess I can see little mystery in it, not nearly so much as in hybernation.

Disbelieving totally, as I do, in what is commonly called the "instinct of the lower animals, and believing that the whole animal creation possesses pretty well the same faculties and reasoning powers

as ourselves, nay, I may go further and say, an immaterial and undying principle similar to our own, the mystery commonly supposed to be connected with the instinct of animals, vanishes in my mind to a considerable extent, It is improbable in the highest degree, that a flock of birds all of the first year, should set off for a foreign land alone, with no old ones in their company, who have been the road before; and therefore, I believe there are always plenty in a flock to guide them. And if so,

why should not birds be able to travel about just the same as men? But even supposing for the sake of argument that such an improbability as I have stated takes place, what then? A flock of birds feel the weather in their locality, getting too cold for them. They do what a tribe of men might do, try to find a warmer place. If they fly northwards, they only experience colder winds, what should they do then but turn round to the south? In that direction they meet with warmer air, and are beckoned continually on and on by more balmy breezes, until they arrive in a locality which suits them, and there they wait until they feel compelled by circumstances to go back again. In short they act like reasonable beings as they are. I should be glad if some one would take up the discussion of the subject presently.

I fear I have trespassed somewhat too much on your attention, and must now draw to a close my desultory remarks. I have simply tried to show what we may all do in what are generally called the dreary months of winter, and I hope I have proved that there is plenty of occupation both for mind and body.

III.—THE BLOOD BEETLE.

Timarcha lævigata.

Reprinted from Science Gossip for February, 1867.

-:0:

It was in the month of October, several years ago, that I first became acquainted with the Blood Beetle. It was crawling over some herbage at a very sluggish pace, totally different to the hurrying race of a SunBeetle across your path, or a Weevil over the leaves, and I took it up to examine it. While turning it over, I found my fingers were covered with what I at first took to be blood; recollecting, however, that none of the other beetles with which I was acquainted afforded the sanguineous fluid, I looked a little closer, and discovered a rich scarlet bead, very translucent in appearance, emerging from the creature's mouth. Upon taking up several others they behaved in the same way, and the habit appeared evidently a defensive one, although the fluid was to me perfectly harmless; it might not be so, however, to the ordinary enemies of the Beetle. This habit, together with the firm ovate appearance, and the worse than snail's pace, at which it crawled along, made the insect very interesting to a neophyte in Natural History, and not knowing its name, I called it pro tem. the Blood-Beetle, which, perhaps, is slightly more refined than its common English cognomen, "The Bloody-nosed Beetle." As it was then rather

ever,

late in the year, there was not much opportunity for discovering many of its peculiarities; it soon retired from observation, probably burying itself among thick moss or herbage. Early in January, howit was abroad in the sunshine under the hedges, and my attention was drawn to it. In April I noticed another curious creature, very common: it appeared to be some kind of larva. It was about ten lines in length, of a dull metallic green above and pinkish beneath, the whole body very wrinkled, and in general appearance convex. It was feeding on Bed-straw, and, where one specimen was seen, plenty of others were sure to be fonnd. It was not until I had taken up several to look at that some of the well-known fluid appeared, and the thought at once struck me that the creature was the larva of my new friend,-the Beetle. It fed, too, on the same food, Galium Aparine, and more rarely on G. mollugo. I at once collected the larvæ and caged them, and after a time found my suspicions correct, for they produced some very fine imagos.

This was one of my first entomological discoveries, and, like every other beginner, I felt a good deal of satisfaction at having made it myself without the aid of a book. I mention this simply as an illustration of the pleasure awaiting anyone who chooses to search for it in the insect world. A few of the notes I have since made on the same species may, perhaps, prove interesting to some of our readers.

The Beetle itself is the most plentiful of the larger coleoptera in our neighbourhood, being found on every bank, and under every hedge; it appears also to be the most hardy, for there is probably no season

I have caught

of the year when it may not be seen. it in every month except December. The larvæ are to be found in April and May on the Bed-straws, looking when young merely like small black protuberances on the leaves. At first sight it would appear that they do not possess the usual number of prolegs or claspers-so prominent among the lepidopterous caterpillars-having apparently only one at the tail. Although Westwood mentions this as single, it is evident to the naked eye, and much more so through a glass, that it is a double one, quite as much as that of a hawk-moth larva; the other four pairs are present in the shape of small tubercles on the abdomen, and are seen quite plainly if the creature be allowed to cross the hand held up horizontally to the light; each is then seen to be brought into full play in the act of walking--they are not so easily detected when it is crawling over the herbage. When seized it rolls itself up like a hedgehog, not being proportionally long enough to do so after the fashion of larger caterpillars. When alarmed, I have known it, in various instances, to emit the scarlet fluid, but it is not done so freely as by the imago. It changes its skin at regular intervals, appearing immediately after of a reddish hue, particularly about the head and legs: it gradually darkens in colour. The larva is quite as sluggish in

its movements as the perfect insect. All my

On

specimens were buried by June 10th, but some had gone down into the earth a fortnight before. July 4th I disinterred one or two; they were then of a very light pink colour, very jelly-like in appearance; the legs were perfectly formed, and the