Green Sandpiper.-On the 3rd instant, while travelling by rail between Instow and Fremington, I noticed three of these birds rise from a swampy piece of ground near the latter place. Two of these seemed to possess much lighter plumage than the third, so were probably young birds of the year, and I have no doubt were bred somewhere in the neighbourhood.— Gervase F. Mathew; August 16, 1874. Rednecked Phalarope at Salthouse, Norfolk.-You may be glad to hear that on the 4th of July a female rednecked phalarope, in splendid plumage, was caught by a boy in the neighbourhood of Salthouse, in this county. It was unable to fly and could hardly stand, but swam beautifully in a basin of water, into which I put it, constantly dipping its beak and eating flies which I dropped near it. Its legs, toes, and their membranes were of a bluish gray colour, not green. It died in the evening; it was very thin. I could not see any wound, external or internal. — Frank Norgate; Sparham, Norwich. Baillon's Crake near Huddersfield.-On the 29th of May a specimen of Baillon's crake was shot near Horn's Dam, Kirkheaton, near Huddersfield. -J. E. Palmer. Baillon's Crake near Eastbourne.-An adult female was captured in this neighbourhood, on the 6th of August, in a very exhausted and emaciated condition. It contained in its ovary eggs about the size of pins' heads. This, I believe, is the only specimen ever found in Sussex.-Arthur J. Clark-Kennedy; Eastbourne, Sussex, August 15, 1874. Shieldrakes breeding in Merionethshire.-On the 9th of July, when sailing on the estuary at Barmouth, Merionethshire, I saw several young broods of shieldrakes. This handsome duck is not uncommon in North Wales, sometimes inland, but more generally on the sea-shore; the extensive tracts of sand-hills (in some places honeycombed by rabbits) which run along the coast seem peculiarly adapted to its habits in the breeding season. -W. J. Kerr. Ducks Breeding on the Rainworth Water.-The following ducks have bred on the Rainworth Water this year (1874), viz. :-several lots of common wild ducks, six or seven tufted ducks, four pairs of teal, and one pair of shoveller ducks, beside great numbers of coots and waterhens, and a couple or two of snipe. I saw a very curious piece of behaviour on the part of a pair of common sandpipers on the 3rd of this month (August). When walking round the lake with two friends we put a pair of sandpipers off a small piece of sand which had been washed out of the field into the lake by the heavy rains of 1872. The remainder of the lake has banks about a foot above the water, fringed with small rushes, so that there is no landing.place for small birds except this bank of sand. The sandpipers, after flying round and looking for a place to settle, made straight for four or five tufted ducks which were sitting on the water, rather widely spread, and attempted to settle on the backs of two of them; they got within six inches, when the ducks, not seeming to relish the idea of such strange jockeys, flapped along the water, thus frustrating their design. The sandpipers, after two or three more rounds, tried to do the same thing on two more of the ducks, but were baulked again the same way as before; so, seeing that it was no good, they flew to the bottom end of the lake, about a quarter of a mile away, and dropped on some stones which are put to keep the banks from washing away.-J. Whitaker; Rainworth Lodge, near Mansfield, Notts. Salmon in the River Coquet in the last Century.-As the abundance of salmon in former times is an interesting subject, I subjoin an extract from a letter in my possession, dated "Warkworth, 5 September, 1764.” The writer states that he is staying within sight of the "River called Coquet-water, abounding with salmon, which was sold this season for a penny a pound; they sometimes catch two hundred at one hawl."—J. H. Gurney; Northrepps, July 30, 1874. Salmon Peal attacked by a Garfish.-One of our fishermen, a few days since met with much difficulty in taking a salmon-peal from his net; on looking for the reason he saw what he supposed to be the ends of a piece of stick protruding on each side of the fish, but on extracting and examining it he found it to be the under jaw of a garfish, known locally as a "longnose." There can be no doubt the garfish attacked the peal, rushing on it with sufficient force to thrust the under jaw completely through the peal, which must have broken off either by the force of the blow or by the struggles of each fish to free itself. The peal, which weighed nearly four pounds, was struck behind and just above the pectoral fin, the jaw of the garfish thus passing through the thickest part of the peal, requiring—if we compare the weight of a swordfish to that of a garfish-even greater velocity of attack in the latter to cause so great a penetration through a fish than it would in the former to penetrate many inches of oak-plauk.-Stephen Clogg. Proceedings of Scientific Societies. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. July 6, 1874.- Sir SIDNEY SMITH SAUNDERS, C.M.G., President, in the chair. Donations to the Library. The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the donors: Annales de la Société Entomologique de France,' ser. 5, tome iii.; presented by the Society. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,' By purchase: The Zoological Record for 1872.' Exhibitions, dc. Professor Westwood exhibited specimens of Haltica (Batophila) ærata, which he had found to be very injurious to young rose-leaves. Also a portion of a walnut attacked by a Lepidopterous larva, probably a Tortrix, but he was unable to name the species, as it produced only an Ichneumon. It was the first instance he had known of a walnut being attacked by any insect in this country. Mr. M'Lachlan suggested that the larva might be that of Carpocapsa splendana, a species which usually feeds on acorns; and Mr. Moore stated that he had bred that species from a walnut. Professor Westwood made some remarks on the Yucca Moth (Pronuba Yuccasella, Riley), of which some fifty specimens had been sent to him, in the pupa state, by Mr. Riley; but he had succeeded in rearing only three of them. He exhibited a drawing of a portion of the insect, showing the peculiar form of the palpi, which were specially adapted for collecting the pollen, which it transferred to the stigmatic surface as the insect passed from flower to flower. He pointed out the great importance of the insect in the economy of nature, as it appeared to be the only agent by which the plant was rendered fertile. He directed attention to a description of the insect and its habits by Mr. Riley, in his Sixth Annual Report of the Insects of Missouri.' Professor Westwood also exhibited some bees which had been sent to him from Dublin, having been found attacking the hives of the honey bees. They were smaller than the honey bee, and black, and he considered them to be merely a degenerated variety of Apis mellifica. He suggested the probability of their being identical with the "black bees" mentioned by Hüber. Also Hüber had spoken of bees which he called " Captains," which were furnished with "coronets" on their heads; but he suspected that these coronets might have been merely the pollen which the insects had collected. Mr. Champion exhibited Amara alpina and other beetles taken at Aviemore, in Inverness-shire. The Secretary exhibited larvæ, pupa and imago of a Dipterous insect which had been found, in the larva state, in an old Turkey carpet. The larva was very long, slender and serpentiform, white and shining, and had somewhat the appearance of a wireworm, only much longer and without feet. Professor Westwood thought it might belong to the genus Scenopinus. Mr. Bond exhibited some minute parasites from a bat, probably identical with Argas pipistrellæ; and also some Acari from a small species of fly: both were from the Isle of Wight. Mr. W. C. Boyd exhibited two specimens of Thecla Rubi from St. Leonard's Forest, differing from the ordinary type in having a pale spot in each fore wing. Mr. Wormald exhibited a collection of butterflies sent from Japan by Mr. H. S. Pryer. Mr. W. Cole exhibited leaves of ash affected by some small dipterous larvæ (probably Cecidomyia), which caused the two edges of the leaflets to turn upwards and meet above, thus assuming a pod-like form. They were from West Wickham Wood. Mr. F. Smith exhibited some earthen cocoons found in a salt marsh at Weymouth by Mr. Joshua Brown. They proved to belong to a dipterous insect (Macharium maritimum), one of the Dolichopida. They were found lying on the wet, salt sand or mud, and mostly fell to pieces when touched. Mr. S. Stevens exhibited specimens of Agrotera nemoralis and other Lepidopterous insects from Abbot's Wood, Lewes. Mr. Butler exhibited a very rare book on butterflies, which he accompanied with the following remarks: Notes on Lee's Coloured Specimens to Illustrate the Natural History of Butterflies.' (London, 1806.) "The exceedingly scarce, if not unique, book which has recently come into the possession of Mr. E. W. Janson has not hitherto been quoted in any synonymic catalogue, and as it contains plates and diagnoses of no less than nineteen species, it is important, now that an opportunity has occurred, to record them at once. = Pl. I. Papilio Hyparete, Lee (Delias) Eucharis, Drury. Lee remarks as follows: This specimen does not exactly answer the description of Linnæus, nor yet of Fabricius; yet it comes so near to both that there is no doubt of its being the same, either with some slight variation, or that the colours of the specimen have in some degree changed. The yellowish hue on the upper side of the anterior wings is described by them as being white; nor is any notice taken of the marginal flesh-coloured spots on the extremity of the posterior wings. It will not, however, by any means answer the description of the Eucharis of Fabricius: and Drury clearly describes Hyparete, as given here, and as mentioned by Fabricius, under the name of Eucharis. Linnæus has no fly under the name of Eucharis. The insect is in itself extremely beautiful and delicate, and when alive must be very brilliant.' Fortunately the figure in Clerck's 'Icones' sufficiently determines what the P. Hyperate (sic) of Linnæus is; Fabricius, however, confounded the two species together as Lee has done. Drury figured and described his P. Eucharis in 1773; it was first described by Fabricius in 1775. = Pl. II. Papilio Thersites, Lee Papilio Turnus, Linn. Lee says:'Respecting this butterfly, of which Fabricius gives so detailed a description, Linnæus is wholly silent. It was either unknown to him or described under a different name. Indeed it so nearly resembles the Papilio Machaon of the latter that it may be considered as a variety of that fly.' The true P. Thersites is so entirely distinct that the detailed description' of Fabricius seems to have been of very little use to Mr. Lee. I think our American friends will hardly agree with his concluding sentence. |