the Hessian
fly. The female deposits from one to eight or more eggs upon a single
plant of wheat, between the vagina or sheath of the inner leaf and the
culm nearest the roots; in which situation, with its head towards the
root or first joint, the young larva pass the winter. They eat the stem,
which thus becomes weak, and breaks; but are checked by another insect,
called the destructor, otherwise whole crops of wheat would be
annihilated.

_Spiders_.

A correspondent of London's _Magazine of Natural History_ says, that he
lately amused himself for more than an hour in observing the proceedings
of a little spider, whose bag of eggs had been removed and restored!

_Light of the Sea_.

Its appearance previous to a storm is a very old observation among
sailors. It is, however without foundation, as it is to be seen, more
or less, all the year round in the Carribean sea, where there are no
storms but in the hurricane months. In the hand it has a kind of mucous
feel.--_Mag. Nat. Hist_.

_Woodpeckers_.

A specimen of the _least woodpecker_ was lately shot near Newcastle; and
another has since been heard and seen near Coventry. Its noise resembles
that made by the boring of a large auger through the hardest wood; whence
the country people sometimes call the bird "the pump-borer."--_Ibid_.

_The Tea Shrub_

Has been naturalized in Java with complete success; so that, sooner or
later, the Chinese monopoly will come to an end.

_Floating Island_.

From the earliest times, there are to be found in authors, notices of the
singular geological phenomena of floating islands. Pliny tells us of the
floating islands of the Lago de Bassanello, near Rome; in Loch Lomond, in
Scotland, there is or was a floating island; and in the Lake of Derwent
Water, in Cumberland, such islands appear and disappear at indefinite
periods. Mr. A. Pettingal, jun. has recently described a floating island,
about a mile southwards of Newbury port, 140 poles in length, and 120 in
breadth. It is covered with trees; and in summer, when dry weather is
long continued, it descends to the bottom of the lake.--_American,
Journal of Science_.

_An immense Medusa_.

A species of sea-serpent, was thrown on shore near Bombay, in 1819.
It was about 40 feet long, and must have weighed many tons. A violent
gale of wind threw it high above the reach of ordinary tides; in which
situation it took nine months to rot; during which process travellers
we