Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-08-27
NOTES FOR nATURALlsTs


 A STRANGE new insect, somewhat on the lines of the lady bug, has appeared by mill ions in the oat fields of Duchess County, N. Y, and threatens to make the harvest light and chaffy one.
 TIE smallest known Towering plant, scarcely visible to the naked eye, is WolDid microscopic, q water weed of India. Two species of the same genus, the largest about one twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter, grow in the eastern United States.
 IN Sylvania, Ga, recently, a strange animal parasite put in an appearance It is worm which frequents the tails of cows, encircling the bone and cutting off the ap- bondage. According to a resident of the place who had observed it's movements, it IS invulnerable to even so strong an appl- cation as kerosene.
 Two PERFECTLY pure white birds, which were caught in Galena, H., have been ex- amlned by local ornithologists, who pro nounce them genuine robins. These OK ceedlngly rare specimens of tho feathered tribe are about two-thirds grown, and were taken from a nest known to have been built by robins of the ordinary red-breasted va riety.
 THE Geological Society, of Philadelphia, mourns the loss of a queer animal, belong Ing to the lowest mammalian group, and
 
 these animals the mothers nurse tho young, the latter are born from eggs laid by the mother parent, and matched as in birds and reptiles As the anlmal's mouth is only ad- 1usted to the use of ants as food, and these could not be supplied in sufficient quantity by those having this peculiar specimen in charge, it lived only six weeks.
 THERE grows in Mixteca, Mex, a plant which the natives call ''The Herb of Proph- ecy." It is said that whoever partal5es of the herb, in few moments sinks into 8 sort of sleep, or rather hypnotic state. in which, while apparently quite inseusl- ble, he has kind of prophetic gift, or double sight, answers questions that are put to him, and becomes so under the will of another that he obeys any command, even to taking his own life. When the effects of the herb wear of he remembers nothing of what he has done.
 NIGHrINGALEs build at the bottom of hedges and shrubs. They use dry oak leaves and arrange them according to the direction in which the leaves have curled, so they fit partially over one another, like plates in @ coat of mail. Inside the leaves there is lining of grass and small roots but the loose grace of the outside is so de- ceptive that only sknlful observer can guess that the mass of dry leaves he sees A~SNAA~o IS anything save a heap of refuse left be hind by some winter whirlwind.
 THE vineyards in the vicinity of Varna, Bulgaria, have been attacked by new kind of an insect pest called the Kcra terzt, or "the black tailor" an appelfation which is supposed to indicate its appearance and habits. It is described as ap adipose black beetle, measuring about three-fourths of an inch in body-length, and furnished with g short pair of shears; with these, in the mornings of April and Mays it cuts off the young vine shoots, which it leaves on the ground until they are parche1 by the sun, when it drags them into the recesses of it's deep and tunneled hole, generally situated at the foot of the plant attacked.
 THE dugong, & species of whale taken in large numbers at Queensland, has probably furnished the slender basis of fact upon which the mermaid and merman stories are founded. It is about eight to twenty feet iu length, lives upon submarine beds of sea. weed, breathes by means of lungs, has a humanlike head, with hair resembling g mans beard. The flesh of the animal is eaten and is said to have the fl& por Of beef veal or bacon, according to the part of the body from which the meat is taken. The oil has all the medical qualities of ced-live1 oil, without the disagreeable taste or sIneL of the latter.