side of a sloping branch of considerable size; the head was uppermost, and it rested on the feet and tarsi, the latter being bare on the under surface for that purpose.  Its attitude in this situation much resembled that of a woodpecker.  One that was kept alive with its wing broken sat across the finger, like another bird.  When about to take flight it makes a cracking noise, as if the wings smote together, after the manner of a pigeon.

Harbingers of Spring.—­One of the earliest intimations of approaching spring is the appearance of the Phalaena primaria, and of one or two other moths, floating with expanded wings on the surface of ponds and still water.  A butterfly, Caltha palustris, is commonly drawn forth from its winter quarters by one of the first warm and sunny days that happen to occur in the month of March:  hence it has been termed fallax veris indicium, (the deceitful token of spring.) In the Isle of Wight it has been seen on the wing the 8th of January, 1805.—­Rev. W.T.  Bree.

Ravages of the Beetle.—­Mr. Bree describes the Scarabaeus horticola as “exceedingly destructive in gardens.  Being on a visit in Staffordshire, in the month of June, I observed whole beds of strawberries (not hautboys) likely to prove nearly barren, though they had flowered copiously, and the season, was favourable for a crop.  I was informed that the failure was owing to the fernshaws (the provincial name for the beetle), which are accused of eating the anthers and interior parts of the blossom.  In the same garden my attention was also called to the ravages committed by this depredator on the apples, by gnawing holes in the young fruit; which consequently dies and falls of, or at least becomes much blemished.  I was assured that the fernshaws had been detected in the fact; and I am rather disposed to think that the charge in both instances is well founded.  I had long been aware of the insect’s partiality for rosebuds and blossoms, which it greedily devours.  In the north of England, where it is much used as a killing bait for trout, the insect is commonly known by the name of ‘bracken-clock,’ a name of the same import with the Staffordshire term ‘fernshaw,’ each signifying ‘fern-beetle.’” Another correspondent says—­Scarabaeus horticola, called “the chovy” in Norfolk, is there deemed very injurious to apple-trees, and other trees and plants, as it feeds both on leaves and all the parts of the flower.  Chovies were abundant at Thetford, Norfolk, about ten years ago; but, as far as my experience has reached, always rare about Bury St. Edmunds.  On the 9th of June, 1829, I saw one in the botanic garden of the last-named town, flitting about a flowering bush of the Provence rose.

Ink of the Cuttle-fish.—­[By way of addenda if not corrigenda to our description of the Cuttle-fish, at page 104 of the present volume, we quote the following observations.]