Volume 1 — FOOTNOTES:
Reading edition
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Oft have I smiled the happy pride to see Of humble tradesmen in their evening glee, When of some pleasing fancied good possest, Each grew alert, was busy and was blest: Whether the call-bird yield the hour's delight, Or magnified in microscope the mite; Or whether tumblers, croppers, carriers seize The gentle mind; they rule it and they please. There is my friend the weaver; strong desires Reign in his breast; 'tis beauty he admires: See to the shady grove he wings his way, And feels in hope the rapture of the day— Eager he looks, and soon to glad his eyes, From the sweet bower by nature form'd arise Bright troops of virgin moths, and fresh born butterflies.
He fears no bailiff's wrath, no baron's blame, His is untax'd and undisputed game. Crabbe's Borough, p. 110.
The sense of Death is most in apprehension,
the actual pang being trifling. Measure for Measure, Act iii. Scene 1.
"Rewerd not thy sheep when ye take off his cote With twitches and patches as brode as a grote; Let not such ungentlenesse happen to thine, Least fly with her gentils do make it to pine."
1 Coleoptera consisting of Beetles. Plate I. Fig. 1-6.
2 Strepsiptera——of the genera Xenos and Stylops. Plate II. Fig. 1.
3 Dermaptera——of the Earwigs. Plate I. Fig. 7.
4 Orthoptera——of Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets, Spectres, Mantes, &c. Plate II. Fig. 2. 3.
5 Hemiptera consisting of Bugs, Cicadæ, Water-scorpions, Water-boat-men, Plant-lice, Cochineal Insects, &c. Plate II. Fig. 4. 5.
6 Trichoptera consisting of the flies produced by the various species of Case-worms, Phryganea, L. Plate III. Fig. 4.
7 Lepidoptera consisting of Butterflies, Hawkmoths, and Moths. Plate III. Fig. 1-3.
8 Neuroptera consisting of Dragon-flies, Ant-lions, Ephemeræ, &c. Plate III. Fig. 5. 6.
9 Hymenoptera consisting of Bees, Wasps, and other insects armed with a sting or ovipositor, and its valves. Plate IV. Fig. 1-3.
10 Diptera consisting of Flies, Gnats, and other two-winged insects. Plate IV. Fig. 4. 5. Plate V. Fig. 1.
11 Aphaniptera consisting of the Flea tribe. Plate V. Fig. 2.
12 Aptera——of Mites, Lice, &c. Plate V. Fig. 3-6.
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These characters and circumstances do not at all agree with the modern Œstrus, which, so far from being a blood-sucker furnished with a strong proboscis, has scarcely any mouth. It shuns also the vicinity of water, to which our cattle generally fly as a refuge from it. It seems more probable that the Œstrus of Greece was related to Bruce's Zimb, represented in his figure with a long proboscis, which makes its appearance in the neighbourhood of rivers, and belongs to the Tabanidæ. For further information the reader should consult Mr. W. S. MacLeay's learned paper on the insect called Oistros and Asilus by the ancients. Linn. Trans. xiv. 353—.
This plan of decoying destructive animals from our crops by offering them more tempting food, is excellent, and deserves to be pursued in other instances. It was very successfully employed in 1813 by J. M. Rodwell, Esq. of Barham Hall near Ipswich, one of the most skilful and best informed agriculturists in the county of Suffolk, to preserve some of his wheat-fields from the ravages of a small gray slug, which threatened to demolish the plant. Having heard that turnips had been used with success to entice the slugs from wheat, he caused a sufficient quantity to dress eight acres to be got together; and then, the tops being divided and the apples sliced, he directed the pieces to be laid separately, dressing two stetches with them and omitting two alternately, till the whole field of eight acres was gone over. On the following morning he employed two women to examine and free from the slugs, which they did into a measure, the tops and slices; and when cleared they were laid upon those stetches that had been omitted the day before. It was observed invariably, that in the stetches dressed with the turnips no slugs were to be found upon the wheat or crawling upon the land, though they abounded upon the turnips; while on the undressed stetches they were to be seen in great numbers both on the wheat and on the land. The quantity of slugs thus collected was near a bushel.—Mr. Rodwell is persuaded that by this plan he saved his wheat from essential injury.
Reaumur (ii. 106) in certain seasons found these patches of eggs so numerous, that in the Bois de Boulogne there was scarcely an oak, the under side of the branches of which were not covered by them for an extent of seven or eight feet. He informs us that the eggs are not hatched till the following spring.
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"Even Tiger fell and sullen Bear Their likeness and their lineage spare. Man only mars kind nature's plan, And turns the fierce pursuit on Man!" Scott's Rokeby, canto iii. 1.
MacLaurin says, that the difference of a cell with a pyramidal from one with a flat bottom, in which is comprised the economy of the bees, is equal to the fourth part of six triangles, which it would be necessary to add to the trapeziums, the faces of the cell, in order to make them right angles.
M. L'Huillier, professor of Geneva, values the economy of the bees at 1/51 of the whole expense; and he shows that it might have been one-fifth if the bees had no other circumstances to attend to; but he concludes, that if it is not very sensible in every cell, it may be considerable in the whole of a comb, on account of the mutual setting of the two opposite orders of cells. Huber, Nouvelles Observations, &c. ii. 34.