A scarce species of oak which is known by its leaves having a triangular apex or top, whose angles terminate in a short bristle; the leaves are smooth below, but woolly above[11]. The young oaks of this species had still their leaves.
When I came into any wood where the above kinds of oaks were only twenty years, and even not so old, I always found the leaves on them. [[68]]
It seems that Providence has, besides other views, aimed to protect several sorts of birds, it being very cold and stormy about this time, by preserving even the dry leaves on these trees. I have this winter at several times seen birds hiding in the trees covered with old leaves during a severe cold or storm.
February the 13th. As I began to dig a hole to-day, I found several insects which were crept deep into the ground in order to pass the winter. As soon as they came to the air, they moved their limbs a little, but had not strength sufficient for creeping, except the black ants, which crept a little, though slowly.
Formica nigra, or the black ant, were pretty numerous, and somewhat lively. They lay about ten inches below the surface.
Carabus latus. Some of these lay at the same depth with the ants. This is a very common insect in all North America.
Scarabæus; chesnut-coloured, with a hairy thorax; the elytræ shorter than the abdomen, with several longitudinal lines, beset with hair. It is something similar to the cock-chaffer, but differs in many respects. I found it very abundant in the ground. [[69]]
Gryllus campestris, or the field-cricket: They lay ten inches deep; they were quite torpid, but as soon as they came into a warm place they revived and were quite lively. In summer I have found these crickets in great plenty in all parts of North America where I have been. They leaped about on the fields, and made a noise like that of our common house-crickets, so that it would be difficult to distinguish them by their chirping. They sometimes make so great a noise, that it causes pain in the ears, and even two people cannot understand each other. In such places where the rattle-snakes live, the field-crickets are very disagreeable, and in a manner dangerous, for their violent chirping prevents the warning, which that horrid snake gives with its rattle, from reaching the ear, and thus deprives one of the means of avoiding it. I have already mentioned that they likewise winter sometimes in chimnies[12]. Here they ly all winter in the ground, but at the beginning of March, as the air was grown warm, they came out of their holes, and began their music, though at first it was but very faint and rarely heard. When we were forced on our travels to sleep in uninhabited places, the crickets had got into the folds of our [[70]]clothes, so that we were obliged to stop an hour every morning in examining our clothes, before we could get rid of them.
The red ants (Formica rufa) which in Sweden make the great ant-hills, I likewise found to-day and the following day; they were not in the ground, for when my servant Yungstroem cut down old dry trees, he met with a number of them in the cracks of the tree. These cracks were at the height of many yards in the tree, and the ants were crept so high, in order to find their winter habitation: As soon as they came into a warm place, they began to stir about very briskly.
February the 14th. The Swedes and the English gave the name of blue bird to a very pretty little bird, which was of a fine blue colour. Linnæus calls it Motacilla Sialis. Catesby has drawn it in his Natural history of Carolina, vol. I. pl. 47, and described it by the name of Rubecula Americana cærulea; and Edwards has represented it in his Natural history of birds, plate and page 24. In my own journal I called it Motacilla cærulea nitida, pectore rufo, ventre albo. In Catesby’s plate I must observe, that the colour of the breast ought to be dirty red or ferruginous; the tibiæ and feet black as jet; the bill too should be quite black; the blue colour in [[71]]general ought to be much deeper, more lively and shining; no bird in Sweden has so shining and deep a blue colour as this: The jay has perhaps a plumage like it. The food of the blue bird is not merely insects, he likewise feeds upon plants; therefore in winter, when no insects are to be met with, they come to the farm-houses in order to subsist on the seeds of hay, and other small grains.