Has a cylindrical body, long antennæ, and a broad tail. Its large claws enable it to seize on its prey, to fix itself on the small prominences of rocks in the sea, to resist the motion of the waves, and to defend itself against its enemies. When the Lobster wants to spring off the rocks, it makes a fulcrum of its tail, which has the action of a powerful spring. Its gait is awkward, as in all the crustacea. Besides its claws, it has four small legs on each side, to assist it in its movements. Under the tail the hen Lobster preserves her eggs till they are hatched. They are extremely prolific. Dr. Baxter says he counted twelve thousand four hundred and forty-four eggs under the tail of a female Lobster, besides those that remained in the body undeveloped. Like the rest of their tribe, they cast their shells annually, previous to which they appear languid and restless: they acquire an entirely new covering in a few days.
May be called the lobster of fresh water, and its presence is generally esteemed an evidence of the goodness of the water. Crayfish are considered a very strengthening food. They are caught in shallow brooks, hid under large stones, out of which they crawl backwards to seek for their prey, which consists of small insects; the hooks employed to catch them are baited with liver or flesh, which they nibble most greedily.
Crabs are of various sizes, some weighing several pounds, and others only a few grains, all of different species. They do not move forward, but sideways. They have a small tail closed on the body; which forms a considerable and essential difference between them and the lobsters, prawns, shrimps, and crayfish.
The most remarkable circumstance in the history of these animals is the changing of their shells and the renewal of their broken claws. The former, as it is stated, take place once a year, and usually between Christmas and Easter. During the operation they retire among the cavities of rocks, and under great stones. Crabs are naturally quarrelsome amongst themselves, and frequently have serious contests, by means of those formidable weapons, their great claws. With these they lay hold of their adversary’s legs; and wherever they seize, it is not easy to make them forego their hold. The animal seized has, therefore, no other alternative but to leave part of the leg behind in token of victory.
An experiment was tried to prove the extremely tenacious disposition of the Crab. By irritating it, a fisherman made a Crab seize one of its own small claws with a large one. The animal did not distinguish that it was itself the aggressor, but exerted its strength, and soon cracked the shell of the small claw. Feeling itself wounded, it cast off the piece in the usual place, but continued to hold it with the great claw for a long time afterwards.
The Violet Land-Crabs of the Caribbee Islands are most singular in their habits; they descend in annual and regular caravans from the mountains, their natural abode, to the sea-shores, in order to deposit their spawn, after which they again return to the mountains. These Crabs form, in their procession, a body of fifty paces broad, and three miles in length. This battalion moves slowly, but with regularity and uniformity, either when they descend or ascend the hills. They abound in Jamaica, where they are accounted a great delicacy by the natives, and are common in the adjacent islands.
Is a curious animal, and ought to be noticed here for its singular habits. It is somewhat like a lobster divested of its shell; it is about four inches in length, and has no shell on the hinder part, but is covered down to the tail with a rough skin; it is also armed with strong hard nippers. This Crab has not been provided by nature with a shell, and is obliged to seek for one which has been deserted by its legitimate tenant; but as this covering cannot grow of course proportionally with him, he is forced out of it by his increasing size, and finds himself under the necessity of looking out for a new one: it is curious to see him when in want of a new house, crawling from one empty shell to another, examining and trying his new habitation. Sometimes, when two competitors happen to eye the same premises, a great contest arises, and of course the strongest gets the manor.
The Shrimp is a well-known small crustaceous animal, nearly allied to the lobster, which it resembles in shape. Its length is rather more than two inches; in colour it is greenish-grey, dotted with brown. It has long slender feelers, between which are two projecting laminæ; ten feet and five fins, but no claws. This animal breeds on all the sandy shores of Great Britain: it is frequently found in harbours, and even in the ditches and ponds of salt marshes; it is also very common on the French coast. During life the body is semi-transparent, and so much resembles sea-water that the animal is distinguished with difficulty. Its ordinary motion consists of leaps. Its flavour is very delicate.
The Prawn is not unlike the shrimp, but exceeds it considerably in size, its length being between three and four inches. It has a projecting ridge down the back, furnished with sharp teeth. Its natural colour is greyish, with small red and brown spots, but when boiled it assumes a most beautiful pink tint. The flesh is very delicate, although perhaps inferior in flavour to that of the shrimp.
Prawns are very common on the coasts of France and England; they are chiefly found among sea-weed, and in the vicinity of rocks, at a little distance from the shore. They seldom enter the mouths of rivers. They feed on all the smaller kinds of marine animals, which they seize and devour with great voracity. In their turn, they are the prey of numerous species of fish, although the sharp and serrated horn in front of their head constitutes a powerful weapon of defence against the attacks of all the smaller kinds. At the side of the head there is frequently to be observed a large and apparently unnatural lump. This, if examined, will be found to contain, under the thoracic plate, a species of parasitic animal, which occupies the whole cavity, and there feeds and perfects its growth. The same tumour or lump may also be observed on the shrimp.
Being in great request for the table, both shrimps and Prawns are eagerly sought for by fishermen, who catch them either in osier baskets, similar to those employed in catching lobsters, or in a kind of net called a Putting-net. These, which are well known to all frequenters of the sea-coast, are five or six feet in width, and flat at the bottom; and are pushed along in the shallow water, upon the sandy shores, by a man who walks behind. There is a great number of other species belonging to the same family as the shrimp and prawn, but they are for the most part inhabitants of foreign seas, and what other British species exist are rare in comparison to the two we have described.
Fossil crustaceans, which are apparently members of the same family, have also been found in France and Germany.
This Order, according to Lamarck, and other modern zoologists, contains the Spiders, Scorpions, and Mites, which do not undergo any metamorphoses. These creatures differ from the true insects in the number of their feet, which are generally eight, while those of the true insects never exceed six.
All the Spiders are distinguished by having no antennæ, eight legs, and generally eight eyes; mandibles terminated by a movable claw, which sometimes emits poison; and an abdomen without rings, furnished at its point with four or six spinnerets, from which the Spider emits the threads used in spinning its web. This web is wonderful in its formation. It consists of a number of stout threads radiating from the centre to various objects in the neighbourhood, and crossed by a great quantity of finer threads arranged in a close spiral, so as to produce the impression of a number of concentric circles. These fine threads are braided and glutinous, so that any unfortunate fly that comes in contact with them adheres readily:
The Spider sits in the middle, and at the least motion caused by a fly or other insect pressing against it, rushes on his prey, and sucks its juices; if, however, it should appear at all formidable, the Spider carefully encloses it in a shroud of web, which, of course, quite disables it; and then feasts on it at his convenience. The most difficult part of the business is to eject the remains, which is often attended with great detriment to the net. The female generally lays from nine hundred to a thousand eggs, which are contained in a kind of bag, and thus an immense number of Spiders are hatched every year, which would soon become troublesome from their numbers, if they were not kept in check by the numerous birds which prey upon them. The silk which the Spider produces is not strong enough to be employed for any useful purposes, though, out of curiosity, gloves and stockings have been woven out of it. A great difficulty, however, arises in the pugnacious habits of Spiders, as, when a number of them are kept together, they fight so dreadfully, that in a short time only a very few are left alive; and a great number would be required, as twelve Spiders do not produce so much silk as a single silkworm. Spiders resemble the crustacea in having the power of reproducing the legs which they lose.
Is a very different species from the Garden Spider. It dwells in the dark corners of houses and outbuildings, forming a dingy web of irregular threads, all of which communicate with a concealed chamber or den in which the Spider lurks.
Is another kind, which forms a sort of tent by stretching its threads between the stems of aquatic plants far below the surface. In this den it dwells, and here it devours the prey which it captures during its excursions; and in order to provide a stock of air for its respiration, it carries down successive small portions entangled amongst the hairs of its abdomen. This process is exactly similar to that by which diving-bells used to be supplied with air, and indeed the dome-like habitation of this Spider is constructed precisely on the same principle as the diving-bell.
There are also several kinds of Water Mites, the most abundant of which is of a rich red colour, and grows to nearly the bulk of a pea. It may commonly be seen swimming among the plants in pools and ditches.
This Spider is a native of the South of Europe. It lives in fields, and its dwelling is about four inches deep in the ground, half an inch wide, and closed at the mouth with a net. They lay about seven hundred and thirty eggs, which are hatched in the spring. These Spiders do not live quite a year; the parents never survive the winter.
Inflammation, difficulty of breathing, and sickness, are said to be the inevitable consequences of the bite of this animal. Dr. Mead, and other medical men, have countenanced the popular story of these effects being counteracted by the power of music. It is, however, now well known, that this singular mode of cure was nothing more than a trick frequently practised on credulous travellers, who were desirous of witnessing it. Mr. Swinburne, when he was in Italy, minutely investigated every particular relative to the Tarantula. The season was not far enough advanced, and it was pretended that no persons had as yet been bitten that year: he, however, prevailed upon a woman, who had formerly been bitten, to dance the part before him. Several musicians were summoned, and she performed the dance, as everyone present assured him, to perfection. At first she lolled stupidly on a chair, while the instruments played a dull strain. They touched at length the chord supposed to vibrate to her heart; and up she sprung with a hideous yell, staggered about the room like a drunken person, holding a handkerchief in both hands, raising them alternately, and moving in very true time. As the music grew brisker, her motions quickened, and she skipped about with great vigour, and in a variety of steps, every now and then shrieking very loud. The scene was unpleasant, and, at his request, an end was put to it before the woman was tired.
He informs us, that, whenever they are to dance, a place is prepared for them, hung round with bunches of grapes and ribbons. The patients are dressed in white, with red, green, or yellow ribbons; on their shoulders they have a white scarf; they let their hair fall loose about their ears, and throw the head quite back. He says that they are exact copies of the ancient priestesses of Bacchus. The introduction of Christianity abolished all public exhibitions of heathenish rites; but the women, unwilling to give up their darling amusement, in performing the frantic character of Bacchantes, devised other pretences; and he supposes that accident led them to the discovery of the Tarantula, of which they took advantage for that purpose.
These destructive little creatures differ from spiders in having the thorax and abdomen united and covered with the same skin, though it is contracted in one part. They have also, when young, only six legs, though the two others appear afterwards; and their feet are armed with strong hooks, which enable them to retain hold of the cheese or other food, in which they take up their abode. Their bodies are covered with hair, and their mouths are furnished with strong mandibles, with which they soon hew down huge rocks and mountains of cheese. The eggs of these Mites are so small, that it has been computed that a pigeon’s egg would contain thirty millions of them. It must be observed that this Mite is only found in dry cheese, in which it looks like reddish dust. The cheese-hopper, found in moist rotten cheese, is the maggot of a kind of fly. (Piophila Casei.)
Insects have all six legs and two antennæ or feelers; and though the transformations they undergo differ slightly in the different kinds, the following is the order in which they occur:—The perfect insect lays eggs, which when hatched produce larvæ; and which are called grubs when they belong to beetles, maggots to flies, and caterpillars to butterflies and moths. These larvæ eat voraciously; and as they rapidly increase in size, they generally moult, that is, change their skins, two or three times. When the larvæ are full grown, they go into the pupa state, in which they remain torpid and without food for a considerable length of time, sometimes first spinning a loose covering for the pupa called a cocoon. The pupa is generally called a chrysalis; but it is also sometimes called a nymph, and sometimes an aurelia. The last transformation is when the insect breaks from its covering in a perfect form, when it is called the imago. There are, however, some insects which are active throughout their lives, and in these the larvæ and pupæ are very similar to the perfect insect. The perfect insect is divided into three segments, or parts, called the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.
The larva of the beetle is a grub, which often continues in that state three or four years, eating voraciously during the whole period. When full grown it in most cases either descends into the ground, where it undergoes its transformations, first into a nymph, or pupa, and then into a beetle; or it makes itself a rough cocoon of bits of stick and dead leaves, in which it changes into a pupa, and afterwards into a beetle. The wood-eating beetles undergo their transformations in the tree on which they feed. The pupa of the beetle is termed incomplete, because all the parts of the insect are visible in it, instead of being enclosed in one thick covering, as in the moths and butterflies. The head of the beetle is furnished with two compound eyes; two antennæ (differing in shape in the various species, but having usually eleven joints); and a mouth, consisting of a labrum, or upper lip, a labium, or under lip, two mandibles, or upper jaws, and two maxillæ, or under jaws. There is also the mentum, or chin, and a part called the clypeus, to which the upper lip is attached.
The thorax is the part which supports the legs and wings. The legs are divided into five portions, of which the part terminated by the claw is called the tarsus. There are two membranous wings, covered by two hardened wings or wing-cases, called the elytra, which generally open by a straight line down the back; and hence the name of Coleoptera, which signifies wing in a case: the abdomen is simply the body.
The number of beetles is very great, and indeed Mr. Westwood informs us that more than thirty thousand species have been described, of which about three thousand five hundred are natives of Britain.
The Cockchafer is one of the lamellicorn beetles. The female lays her eggs in the ground, and the grubs, when hatched, are soft, thick, and whitish. It is from its white appearance that the grub of the Cockchafer is called le ver blanc by the French. These grubs, sometimes in immense numbers, work between the turf and the soil in the richest meadows, devouring the roots of the grass to such a degree that the turf rises, and will roll up with almost as much ease as if it had been cut with a turfing knife; the soil underneath appearing, for more than an inch in depth, like the bed of a garden. In this the grubs lie, on their backs, in a curved position, the head and tail uppermost, and the rest of the body buried in the mould. It is also said that a whole field of fine flourishing grass has become, in a few weeks, withered, dry, and as brittle as hay, in consequence of these grubs devouring the roots.
In the year 1688 great numbers of Cockchafers appeared on the hedges and trees of the south-west coast of the county of Galway, in clusters of thousands, clinging to each others’ backs, in the manner of bees when they swarm. During the day they continued quiet, but towards sunset the whole were in motion; and the humming noise of their wings sounded like distant drums. Their numbers were so great that, for the space of two or three square miles, they entirely darkened the air. Persons travelling on the roads, or who were abroad in the fields, found it difficult to make their way home, as the insects were continually beating against their faces, and occasioned great pain. In a very short time the leaves of all the trees, for several miles round, were destroyed, leaving the whole country, though it was near midsummer, as naked and desolate as it would have been in the middle of winter. The noise which these enormous swarms made, in seizing and devouring the leaves, was so loud, as to be compared to the distant sawing of timber. Swine and poultry destroyed them in vast numbers; waiting under the trees for the clusters of insects to drop, and then devouring such swarms as to become fat upon them alone. Even the native Irish, from the insects having eaten up the whole produce of the ground, adopted a mode of cooking them, and thus used them as food. Towards the end of the summer they disappeared so suddenly that in a few days there was not one left.
Rooks are very fond of eating these grubs, and often, when they are seen in a newly-sown field, apparently devouring the grain, they are, in fact, rendering the greatest service to the farmer, by destroying his great enemy, the white worm.
This well-known insect, which is sometimes also called “the shard-borne beetle,” has been often noticed by the poets. Amongst others, Shakespeare makes Macbeth say:
This beetle, which is a British insect, lays its eggs in a mass of cow-dung, which it afterwards buries in the earth. It makes a dull drowsy noise when it flies, and often strikes itself against any person or object it may meet, as though it were blind. It has also the habit of stretching out its limbs and pretending to be dead when caught.
This insect is the largest, and most singular in shape, of any in this country. It is known by two horn-like mandibles, projecting from its head, and resembling those of a stag, with which it is able to pinch very severely. These mandibles are strongly dentated from the root to the point. The wing-cases have neither streaks nor spots. The whole insect is of a deep brown. It is sometimes found in hollow oaks and beeches, near London.
The larvæ, or grubs, lodge under the bark, or in the hollow of old trees; which they bite and reduce to fine powder. The larvæ are supposed to exist three or four years before they form their cocoons. These insects are mostly found in Kent and Sussex. In Germany there is a popular but idle notion, that they sometimes, by means of their jaws, carry burning coals into houses; and that, in consequence of this mischievous propensity, dreadful fires have been occasioned. The Stag Beetle is one of the lamellicorn Coleoptera.
Is found in South America, particularly in Guiana and Surinam, as well as near the river Orinoko. It is one of the largest beetles of its kind; it is black, and the whole body is covered with a very hard shell, quite as thick and as strong as that of a small crab. Its length, from the hinder part to the eyes, is almost four inches; and from the same part to the end of the large horn on the head (from the resemblance of which to the proboscis of an elephant, and its great size, the beetle has obtained its name) four inches and three quarters. The transverse diameter of the body is two inches and a quarter; and the breadth of each case, for the wings, upwards of an inch. The horns are about an inch long, and terminate in points. The head-horn is an inch and a quarter long, and turns upwards, making a crooked line terminating in two horns, each of which is nearly a quarter of an inch long. Above the head is a prominence, or small horn, which, if the rest of the trunk were away, would cause this part to resemble the horn of a rhinoceros. There is, indeed, a beetle named after that animal, whose lower horn resembles this: its scientific name is Oryctes Rhinoceros.
This is one of the longicorn beetles. It is a very beautiful insect, of a glossy bluish-green colour, with a cast of shining gold; the under part of the body is bluish. It is about an inch and a half in length, and is elongated in form, its breadth being small in proportion to its length; the wings under the case are black; the legs are of the same bluish-green colour, only somewhat paler; and the breast is pointed at each extremity. Between these points are three little tubercles near the wings, and three smaller towards the head. The cases of the wings are oblong, and somewhat in the shape of a lance, with three ribs a little raised, and running lengthwise. The feelers are as long as the body, composed of many joints, which grow smaller near the ends. This Beetle is very common in the south of England, and is chiefly to be found on old pollard willows. It emits a strong and agreeable odour, which is not unlike attar of roses. It certainly has not the slightest resemblance to musk, though those who named it appear to have thought that it had.
The Ground Beetle is not only one of the largest, but the most beautiful and brilliant that this country produces. The head, breast, and wing-cases are of a coppery green; the latter having three longitudinal rows of oblong raised spots. All the under part of the insect is black. Having only very short wings beneath the cases, Nature has providentially supplied it with such legs as enable it to run with amazing swiftness. This insect is frequently found in damp places, under stones and heaps of decayed plants in gardens. There are several species, one of which (Carabus violaceus) is of a beautiful purple.
The larvæ live under ground, or in decayed wood, where they remain until metamorphosed to their perfect state, when they proceed to devour the larvæ of other insects, and all weaker animals that they can conquer.
The Ground Beetles are found as early as the beginning of March, in paths and near old walls, where the sun warms the earth with its vivifying beams. Many of the large species have been found between the decayed bark and wood of willow trees.
It is only the female Glowworm which produces the beautiful light for which the insect is so well known, and she frequently communicates this light to her eggs. She is without wings or wing-cases, and possesses no beauty when seen by daylight. The male has wings, and leathery elytra. The larva is a very ugly and very voracious grub, which feeds greedily on snails and slugs.
This creature is called the Death-Watch, from a superstitious notion that, when its beating is heard, it is a sign that some one in the house is going to die. The insect lives in wood, and the noise is produced by its striking its head against whatever is near it. These insects, in the larva state, do a great deal of mischief to old furniture, in which they perforate numerous round holes. To enable them to do this they are furnished with two maxillæ formed like two cutting pincers, with the help of which they bore the holes so neatly that the French call them vrillettes, from vrille, a gimlet. They also perforate books in the same way, and thus do much damage in old libraries:
Sometimes two of these insects may be heard ticking, answering each other; and sometimes the Death-Watch may be made to tick by tapping with the finger-nail upon a table. These creatures imitate death with great exactness when they are caught, or when they think themselves in danger.
These insects are found but rarely in this country; they are more common in France, but Spain, Italy, and Russia seem to be their favourite localities. They make their appearance in July, and are generally found upon ash trees, the leaves of which form their food. They are of great commercial importance, for they are found very useful in medicine on account of their remarkable blistering powers. They have a very disagreeable smell, and emit a fluid of so corrosive a nature that many persons have suffered greatly from gathering them; and it is said to be extremely dangerous to sleep under a tree infested by them, as their smell produces a lethargic sleep, which frequently terminates in death. They are generally caught by laying linen cloths under the trees they infest, and beating the boughs; they are then put into hair sieves, and held over vessels of boiling vinegar, till the vapour kills them. After this they are dried in ovens, or on hurdles, exposed to the sun, and then packed up for sale. When dried, fifty of them hardly weigh a drachm, but they do not lose their medicinal properties by age unless allowed to get damp. Though bearing the name Spanish Flies, the greatest quantity is obtained from St. Petersburg, the Russian insects being considered the best.
They are of a highly poisonous nature, and there are many instances, some even recent, of their producing violent hemorrhage and death.
This is a little beetle about an eighth of an inch in length, of a reddish-brown colour, with a slender proboscis projecting from the front of the head, at the extremity of which the mouth is situated. As this proboscis is not thicker than a fine needle, our readers may form some notion of the minute size of the jaws with which the mouth is furnished; nevertheless, they are sufficiently powerful to enable the little creature to eat corn and biscuit. In the larva state they are exceedingly destructive to corn in granaries, sometimes abounding to such an extent in a heap of grain as to leave nothing of it but the husks.
There are an immense number of Weevils, all of which have the front of the head elongated into a proboscis or beak. A very common one is the Nut-Weevil (Balaninus micum), which has a very long and slender beak; with this the female eats into the soft shells of young nuts, and deposits her eggs in the hole; the grubs devour the kernel of the nut, and leave nothing but dust in the interior of the shell.
The larva of this well-known and beautiful little beetle is disagreeable and almost disgusting in its appearance; but to compensate for this it is extremely useful in destroying the aphis, or green fly. In the perfect insect the elytra are scarlet, beautifully spotted with black; some species having seven, and others five spots, and one of the most beautiful, eighteen. The head is very small, the antennæ and legs very short, and the body nearly round. This beetle is generally regarded with much favour in almost all countries, and in Catholic times was in a manner dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Hence its name of Lady Bird.
In this order the elytra, or wing-cases, are much softer and more flexible than in the beetles; they are frequently membranous or webbed, and when closed they do not form a straight line down the back. The mouth is also different; the maxillæ being terminated by a horny, toothed piece called the galea. There is also a kind of tongue, and the metamorphosis is incomplete.
Unlike most other insects, the female Earwig watches over her eggs until they are hatched, and afterwards attends upon her young progeny for some time. At the beginning of the month of June, M. de Geer found, under a stone, a female Earwig, accompanied by many little ones, evidently her young. They continued close to her, and often placed themselves under her body, as chickens do under a hen.
This little animal is very nimble, and perfectly harmless, except to flowers, notwithstanding the fabulous charge which was so long believed against it, of its entering the human ear, and depositing its eggs there, which were said to cause intolerable pain when hatched, and the young began to gnaw the inside of the ear. The Earwig possesses wings, which, when extended, cover nearly the whole insect. The elytra, or wing-cases, are short, and do not extend along the whole body, but only over the breast. The wings are concealed beneath these, and are somewhat of an oval shape. There is great elegance in the manner in which the insect folds its wings beneath its elytra.
So common in London kitchens, is nearly allied to the Earwig.
This insect is remarkably shaped. The head is joined to the body by a neck, longer than the rest of the body. It has two polished eyes, and two short feelers. This neck consists of the first segment of the waist or thorax. The wing-cases, which cover two-thirds of the body, are veined and reticulated, or netted. The wings are veined and transparent. The hinder legs are very long, the next shorter; and the foremost pair of thighs are terminated with spines: the others have membranous lobes, which serve them as wings in their flight. The top of the head is membranous, shaped like an awl, and divided at its extremity. This animal is one of the innumerable instances which Nature affords of the infinite wisdom of the Creator; for, whenever an animal is found to deviate in shape from the general system, it is still formed to answer the design of its existence. Thus this insect, having such long legs, could never have sustained itself in the air had not Providence bestowed on the legs themselves a species of wings to balance their weight. These are instances with which Nature teems; and which would make the atheist tremble did he but contemplate the admirable design and system with which they are characterised as
These insects are partly of a pale yellowish green, and partly brown; so that they look like dead leaves, whence their English name. They are found in the East Indies and China.
The ordinary Mantides, or Praying Insects, as they are sometimes called, from their apparently devotional attitudes, resemble the species just described in their general structure, but are seldom furnished with so long a neck and so leaf-like a body. They carry the head erect, and the long fore-feet, which shut together like a clasp-knife, are used in catching their prey; it is while thus engaged that their postures have been considered to resemble an attitude of devotion.
Has a shorter neck than the Mantis, and its fore-legs are not constructed as claspers, but the body is very flat and leaf-like, and the wing-cases are veined so as to look exactly like a leaf; indeed, if seen adhering motionless to the branch of a tree, it would certainly be mistaken for a leaf. They are found in the East Indies. It is curious that while these creatures present such a deceptive resemblance to leaves, there are some near relatives of theirs which are equally similar to sticks and twigs, so that the semblance of a leafy branch might easily be made by fixing the former upon the latter. Some of these Walking Sticks are eight or nine inches in length, and the whole body and legs are of precisely the colour and texture of bark.