LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

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would run away with her, with head erect, as nimbly as ifhe had but a barley straw between his teeth, I have oftenregretted that my sojourns in the country were not sufficientlylong and uninterrupted to enable me to pay to the study of j

Entomology that attention which it so highly merits. I have I

observed enough of the subject to convince me that manycases exist wherein the farmer, the rearer of bees, and thegardener commit great errors through ignorance of therudiments of that science, and so being unable to distinguishamongst insects their friends from their enemies.

Man is not the only animal that wars against and destroyshis own species. Insects who excel us in all the innatequalities of construction, self-preservation, and defence, canonly vie with us in that of inter-destruction. However, thecultivator should know which kind of insect preys most uponanother, and so encourage the propagation of such as are thedestroyers of the greater enemies. For instance, I suggestthat fruit is much more liable to injury from flies than wasps.

The death of one wasp will save the lives of perhaps athousand flies, which the carnivorous insect prefers topeaches. The Libellula or Dragon fly, is eagerly killed bygardeners or their children who know not that its only foodconsists of insects. The Ichneumon fly which is often killed ;his resemblance to the wasp family, destroys multitudes of |caterpillars, by laying its eggs in their bodies. Most of thered ants devour everyspecies of insect, and in Italy there ;is a friendly insect which destroys thousands of cockchafers. iThe gardener has no better friends than toads and frogs, wholive entirely on slugs and injurious vermin. Rooks do farmore good by the destruction of grubs and insects, thanharm, by the few grains of corn they may chance to pick atsowing time.

Where bees are kept, some regard should be paid, evenin England, to the qualities of the plants which flower in the