ones not being very numerous."--(W.
Spence.)

Cedar Wood.

"The _cedar_ has been recommended, among other woods, for the purpose
of constructing drawers for cabinets of insects. Let the inexperienced
collector be warned that this is, perhaps, the _very worst_ wood that
can be employed for the purpose; a strong effluvia, or sometimes
a resinous gum, exudes from the wood of the cedar, which is apt to
settle in blotches on the wings of the specimens, especially of the
more delicate Lepidoptera, and entirely discharges the colour. The
Rev. Mr. Bree once had a whole collection of lepidopterous insects
utterly spoiled from having been deposited in cedar drawers; and
he has understood, also, that the insects in the British Museum,
collected, he believes, chiefly by Dr. Leach, have been greatly
injured from the same cause. Possibly, however, cedar wood, after it
has been thoroughly well seasoned, may be less liable to produce these
injurious effects."

Habits of the Common Snake in Captivity.

A Staffordshire Correspondent writes thus familiarly:

"This has been a remarkably good season, both for vegetables and
animals. It has been a singular time for adders, snakes, and lizards;
I never saw so many as I have seen this year in all my life. I have
been trying, a great part of this summer, to domesticate a common
snake, and make it familiar with me and my children; but all to
no purpose, notwithstanding I favoured it with my most particular
attention. It was a most beautiful creature, only 2 ft. 7 in. long. I
did not know how long it had been without food when I caught it; but
I presented it with frogs, toads, worms, beetles, spiders, mice, and
every other delicacy of the season. I also tried to charm it with
music, and my children stroked and caressed it; but all in vain:
it would be no more familiar with any of us than if we had been the
greatest strangers to it, or even its greatest enemies. I kept it in
an old barrel, out of doors, for the first three weeks: during that
time, I can aver, it ate nothing; but, after a very wet night, it
seemed to suffer from the cold. I then put it into a glass vessel, and
set it on the parlour chimney-piece, covering the vessel with a piece
of silk gauze. I caught two live mice, and put them in to it; but they
would sooner have died of hunger than the snake would have eaten them:
they sat shivering on its back, while it lay coiled up as round as a
ball of worstep. I gave the mice some b