laid their ova in that insect. But this experiment. did not succeed. My glasses were stolen as they stood in a wood, and since, I have never had an opportunity to pursue these inquiries. The beetle always died in the water. Some of these circumstances I mentioned to Mr Smellie last winter, and he told me that the like discovery had been made by some gentleman in the botanical garden. As neither that gentleman, however, nor Mr Smellie, so far as I know, have published any thing like these facts, I could wish them to be more generally known to naturallists. I hope therefore that you will admit the above into your useful miscellany first opportunity, and oblige a sincere friend and well wisher to your undertaking. Perthshire.

A. Z,*.

ANECDOTES OF HUNTING, EXTRACTED FROM MR CAMPBELL'S TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA, NOW IN THE PRESS.

Method of killing Brants, a kind of Water Fowl, on the River Merimafbee.

ON any point of land between two creeks, bays, or (which is best,) between two rivers, the sportsman slips off a tree a twig, or small branch, the small end of which he fixes in the sand, quite close to the water edge, to the height of the bird he means to represent; near to it, he fixes two or three other sticks to

* This paper, with many others, has been much longer delayed than the Editor intended.

March 27. the height of the body; round these sticks he wraps some sea weed, so as to resemble as much as pofsible the wings and tail of the bird; and the upper end of the stick, the neck and head, I mean that which formerly adhered to the tree; so that to view it at a distance it will very much resemble a bird. He sometimes makes two or three of these decoys close to each other, which being seen by the birds at a distance as they fly along, entice them to come on, and take a sweep around, supposing them to be some of their fellows. At a proper distance he makes a pit in the sand, and around it places some fhrubbery, or small bunches of the crops of trees, to cover himself when he sits, that he may not be seen by them. This is always done on the windward side of the point, which, for the most part, sea fowls are fondest of frequenting. A flock of them in passing by, suppose these objects to be real birds, and come close up to them; on which the sportsman fires, and if he happens to kill one or two, he places them in the water, with a sharp pointed stick, one end of which is fixed in the sand, the other under the chops of the bird, which holds up his head as if alive, and the motion of the surge keeps him heaving up and down, and from side to side; so that now it is next to impofsible to discover the deception.

The next flight that comes, alight close by this one, on which he readily fires sitting; and every one he kills, he places close by the other, in the same manner with the first. This he continues to do, till, in a few hours, he may have the full loading of

133 his canoe, or as many as he chooses to carry home. The birds are so numerous in these bays, and flocks of them so frequently pafsing from one point to another, that scarcely would there be an end to this diversion, at which, indeed, the Indians are most expert.

Mode of hunting Moose Deer.

The manner of hunting the moose deer in the the rutting season, is as follows: the moose at night is fond of feeding on a sort of grafs that grows at the bottom or sides of ponds or lakes.

The sportsman ranges from pond to pond, and lake to lake, until he finds by their track that which the moose frequents; he then places himself in a proper situation on the side of that pond or lake. He is provided with a slip of birch bark, about a span broad, which he rolls up in the form of a funnel; and when the proper time of night comes, putting the small end of it to his mouth, he blows through it, and gives the call peculiar to this animal. If the moose is within hearing, he answers the call, and comes rushing through the wood with such rapidity and noise, that he is heard at a considerable distance;. all the young saplings, branches, or bushes, giving way to his great strength in his career. If he is any way doubtful, he stops and listens; the sportsman then calls and calls again through his birch funnel; and if the moose bull does not know the sound, though within gun fhot, he comes no farther. The huntsman finding this, has recourse to another deception. With the same instrument he blows in the water, and makes it bubble up, so as to resemble the wa

ter bubbling by the breath of an animal feeding in it; then putting his finger in the small end of the funnel, he dips it into the water, and raises the full of it; then removing his finger, he pours it back again in a small stream; thus making a noise as if a cow moose was pissing. When the bull hears this, he runs with such fury and force, that the sportsman, for fear of being trodden down, is often obliged to step to a side, till he dash into the water, where he becomes more visible by its reflection; and having now full sight and time to take his aim, he fires and kills him on the spot.

In winter they hunt them with dogs, when the crust of the snow is so hard as to hold up the dogs, while the weight of the moose sinks him to the bottom. When closely pursued, and no pofsibility of escaping, he runs about in a circle until he beat down. the snow and make a path, within which he keeps to beat off the dogs, and often kills some of those that happen to come within this circle and his reach. His horns are of an enormous length and thickness at the root. I have seen one horn of a moose deer, which I am convinced would weigh from sixteen to twenty pounds.

READING MEMORANDUMS.

THE noblest effort of the human mind is to endure with patience, and conceal with decency, the daily tortures of gradual death.

The most conspicuous feature of genius, is a perseverance in the pursuits of the object to which a man's education is devoted.

VERSES ON EDUCATION, ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG NOBLEMAN.

[By the late 'Dr Spens, late minister of the Wemyss, afterwards Professor of Divinity at St Andrews, and Translator of Plato's Republic, A.D.1758; never before published.]

TELL

ELL me, ye muses! in your tuneful strains,
What seeds of virtue or of science spring
In gen'rous minds; and what the goodly fruits,
Where patient culture, and propitious skies,
Fail not to nourish what the bounteous hand
Of nature lib'ral sows? "Tis
claims

My rural song;
whom ev'ry eye
Delighted views, with gentlest manners grac'd,
And brightest genius, ardent in pursuit
Of fame and honour; while each heav'nly muse,
With studious love, and with a mother's joy,
Prepares their choicest garland to adorn

His honour'd brow; nor me amid their haunts
Presumptuous deem, whilst fond I crave to bear,
With zealous hands, some freshest flow'rs, their gift
And blooming present to their darling youth.

Say, what avails illustrious birth; and what
All outward wealth and honours; if the gifts
Of nature and of genius be bestow'd
With sparing hand? Or if some dire disease
Prey on these gen'rous seeds; or naughty sore
Impair their vigour; or th' afsiduous hand
Of painful culture, turning all to thrift,
Shall be with-held? Campania's fertile vales
Lie choak'd with weeds beneath the baleful reign
Of sloth and luxury; while rugged rocks
And deserts smile on industry's approach.

Thrice blest of heav'n they who the gen'rous seeds
Of virtue and of science from the hand