The Scottish Naturalist. 9 



secondaries, greater and lesser wing-coverts, and tail, tipped with black ; 

 hind neck and scapulars irregularly spotted with black ; around the base of 

 the bill and clown the throat of a purplish brown colour, interspersed with 

 white. The second bird measured %, an inch less than the first, and 2.y z 

 inches more in extent of wing, and weighed fifteen and a quarter ounces ; 

 it was similarly marked to the first, except that the scapulars have but 

 two or three spots of black, and three of the tail feathers want the black 

 tip, and are y z an inch larger than the others. The bill of both was of a 

 pale blue, tipped with orange yellow, but these colours soon disappear 

 after death. This species has been seldom seen on the East of Scotland, 

 although of frequent occurrence on the West. — George Sim, Aberdeen. 



Lycsena Artaxerxes. — On the 24th of J uby last, while walking between 

 the villages of Minnihive and Carsphairn, in Kirkcudbrightshire, both 

 Johnstone Watson, Esq. (of the Temple, London), and I, were fortunate 

 enough to box by the roadside over a dozen specimens of this rare butterfly. 

 They were plentiful all along the way, but most so where the road must 

 have been many hundred feet above the sea level. — H. O. Forbes, Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh. 



Insecta Scotica— Addenda. — Tweed District — Cymatophora duplaris, 

 at Dunse. Anchocelis rufina, common. Noclua umbrosa, Eyemouth and 

 Lauder. N. conflua, common. Xylophasia hepatica, Eyemouth. — A. 

 Kelly, Lauder, November, 1874. 



Orkney District — Xylophasia rurea, Apamea unanimis. — J. Boswell 

 'Syme, Balmuto, December, 1874. 



Food-plant of Plusia interrogationis.— Plusia interrogationis is plenti- 

 ful on Dogden Moss, and there is not a nettle for miles. There must be 

 something wrong about the stated food-plant, evidently. — A. Kelly, 

 Lauder, November, 1874. [Though nettle is stated to be the food-plant 

 of this Plusia in many of the text-books, yet it is quite erroneous, as heather 

 (Erica and Calluna) is the real food-plant. The larva hibernates in a small 

 condition and feeds up in May and June, when it may be found on the 

 heather. It is green, with paler stripes. Nettle is a favourite food-plant 

 of many other of the Plusia. — Editor Scottish Naturalist.] 



Lepidopterological Notes. — Panagra petraria H. — A few years ago I 

 found this insect here — it had not hitherto been recorded for Perthshire — 

 very abundant, but confined to a limited space. Each year since then I 

 have found it not only in the original locality but in other spots, in which, 

 to the best of my belief, it did not" occur when I first discovered it. Some 

 of these places are nearly a mile from the original one. I am thus inclined 

 to think that P. petraria must be a comparatively recent colonist in Perth- 

 shire, but how it originally arrived it is difficult to guess. 



Leptogramma niveana F. {Scotaua Stph.). — I find this insect among 

 birch trees in one of my woods. The birches are scattered here and there 

 among larches and other trees, but niveana I have only found on the side of 

 the wood facing the north. Though I have carefully searched for it in 

 other likely places, both in this neighbourhood and other parts of Perth- 

 shire, I have only seen it in the above-mentioned wood and in the 

 neighbourhood of Loch Rannoch, so that it would seem that it is not 

 generally distributed in all birch woods in the county, but that it is 

 Tery local. — Thomas Moncreiffe, Moncreiffe, November, 1S74. 



