144 ^^^^ Scottish Naturalist . 



With regard tc the hereditary custom alluded to by 

 Mr. Wallace, as to birds passing over the same track, from 

 generation to generation, without ever having perceived that 

 whereas their fathers passed over dry land they in the same spot 

 have now to cross a dangerous sea, this theory seems to me to 

 fall to the ground in the very fact, as has been shown, that the 

 young do not migrate with their parents, and therefore never 

 could have had the route handed down to them. Captain 

 Sperling believed that all birds cross the whole breadth of 

 the Mediterranean in one night (unless there happens to be 

 an island in their track) and I am very much of the same 

 opinion. As to the passage being effected always by moonlight 

 (according to Mr. Wallace), though they may occasionally do 

 so, there is evidence to show that they pass in the very 

 darkest of nights, and even when there is not a star to be 

 seen. 



(To be co?ttt?med. ) 



THE LEPIDOPTEKA OF MONOREIFFE HILL 



By Sir THOMAS MONCREIFFE, Bart. 



(Continued frojn page no.) 



Trachea piniperda is about the earliest of our noctuoe in 

 this locality. I took one on a Scots fir trunk on the 22 nd of 

 February, 1872. It is however most unpunctual in its habits, 

 as if it appears in February one season it may not show till April 

 the next, and in 1874 we never saw it at all, though we were 

 nightly at the sallows where it is usually found. It was hoAv- 

 ever plentiful in 1875. It does not appear to be more influenced 

 by weather than others of the spring insects, and it cannot 

 suffer from the lack of its food plant, as that is always there one 

 season the same as another ; why then an occasional total 

 absence ? It is commonly distributed over the higher levels, 

 and comes down to my garden occasionally, to feed at the 

 early sallows. 



TcEniocampa gothica. — Abundant at sallow blossom, at all 

 elevations. Very variable in shade and intensity of colour, as 

 also in the pattern on the wings. I took several of the var. 



