In North America, much damage is done to crops of wheat by 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