Part of a Letter from Mr. Benjamin Bullivant, at Boston, in New England; to Mr James Petiver, Apothecary, and Fellow of the Royal Society, in London. Concerning Some Natural Observations He Had Made in Those Parts

I. Part of a Letter from Mr. Benjamin Bullivant, at Boston, in New England; to Mr. James Petiver, Apothecary, and Fellow of the Royal Society, in London. Concerning some Natural Observations he had made in those Parts. SIR, The last I addressed to you, was by our ingenious Friend Mr. Trott, who went hence in October; I have since received from you Mr. Josselin's Book of New England Rarities, and observe him to be short, but nervous. I cannot now make any descant on your Observations upon him, only this, that I made the same Remark you do, about the Plague of the Back, that it is greatly distant from an Empyema. I have tasted it more than once personally, it seems more of a Collick, yet is undoubtedly a Nervous Dolor. The Country People have learned of the Indians to steep Castoreum in Rum, and so cure it. As to the Fire-Flies, I took several of them in July last, I take them to be a Glow-Worm Volant; the Lustre is plac'd as in a Glow-Worm. Kill the Fly (as I have done) and you find the Scintilla a small Jelly like Substance, the which separated into Atoms, gives still, in the Dark, a proportionable Lustre, to the Magnitude of each Atom. I saw Butterflies Eggs that were testaceous, and near as big as a Wrens, most gloriously bespotted with Gold and Silver; at Road Island the Mowers find them in the Grass, and they hatch in the Windows, and are a Sport for Children. Tortoises Tortoises are Amphibious, I have found their Eggs by Ponds Sides, in great Quantities, they are without Shells, like those in a Hens Belly; our Dames scruple not to use them as Hens Eggs in Puddings. Grasshoppers, in dry Years, are a Plague to the Husbandmen: That on some Islands they have put Multitudes of Turkeys to destroy them; they are prodigious in Quantity, of a Grey Colour, and about Three Inches long; in July become Volant, and have a kind of Regimental Discipline, and as it were, some Commanders, which shew greater and more splendid Wings than the Commoners, and rise first when they are pursued by the Fowls, or by the Foot of the Traveller, which I have often seriously remarked. The Hum-bird I have shot with Sand, and had one some Weeks in my keeping. I put a Straw for a Perch into a Venice Glass Tumbler, ty'd over the Mouth with a Paper, in which I cut Holes for the Bird's Bill (about as long and as small as a Taylor's Needle) and laying the Glass on one Side, set a Drachm of Honey by it, which it soon scented, and with its long Tongue put forth beyond its Bill, fed daily; it muted the Honey pure, and was a Prospect to many Comers; it flew away at last. We have a Frog as big as a Penny Loaf, its Cry's exactly like a Bull. I have examined the Clam, he hath a Plain Pipe or Proboscis, from whence he ejects Water, if compressed. Boston in New England, Jan. 15. 1694.