The Scottish Naturalist 265 



ning of July. Acrolepia assectelld ? — I forwarded a specimen of an Acrolepia, 

 with some other micros, to Mr. Stainton for determination. He returned 

 it under the above name, with a mark of interrogation, as the specimen 

 was too worn to be able to be certain about it. A. assectella has not 

 hitherto been recorded as British, though common on the Continent. Mr. 

 Stainton tells me it feeds upon leeks, and he thinks it certain to occur here 

 some day. My specimen was taken on the windows of my rooms in Edin- 

 burgh, July 14, 1875. — W. A. Forbes. 



Food Plants of Gonepteryx rhamni. — In reply to an Editorial note 

 in the Scottish Naturalist (vol. 3, page 226), I may say I am inclined to 

 think it is by no means certain that Gonepteryx rhamni has no other food- 

 plants than the two Buckthorns. Kaltenbach, in his Pflanzenfeinde, men- 

 tions Medlar and the " Pyrus-tribe," on the authority of De Geer, as food- 

 plants of the species, and in the absence of the Buckthorns it is possible 

 that the insect might take to other plants ; but still it would be interesting 

 to find that the egg had been laid or the larva taken in this country from 

 any of the trees mentioned by Kaltenbach. — Owen Wilson, Carmarthen. 



Sphinx convolvuli in Orkney.— In the autumn of last year Sphinx 

 ■convolvuli was abundant at Swanbister, on the south coast of the Main- 

 land of Orkney, about half way between Kirkwall and Stromness. The 

 first I took was on the evening of the 12th August, and I saw several every 

 night until the 16th, or the morning of the 17th, when I left Orkney for 

 the south. A week afterwards my niece, Miss Irvine Fortescue, in a letter, 

 said — "the large moths have been in the garden in numbers every evening 

 since you left." I caught 10 specimens flying over honeysuckle, and single 

 Pheasant's-eye Pinks, mostly at the former. They appeared about 8 p.m., 

 and ceased flying about nine ; but, after packing up, on the morning of the 

 17th I went out about I a.m., and heard the "whirr" of the moth. So I 

 lighted a lantern, and in a few minutes caught four specimens. They were 

 in fine condition when caught, but got much damaged in transit, as I had 

 no means of packing them with me. I have no doubt they were bred in 

 Orkney ; but on what can the larva have fed ? There is no Convolvulus 

 in Orkney so far as I know, for though Neill gives C. arvensis as an 

 Orkney plant, no one has found it there since — J. T. BosWELL, Balmuto, 

 near Kirkcaldy, February, 1876. 



Chariclea umbra in Forth District. — I see you do not give this 

 (Heliothis marginatus ) as in "Forth." I took a specimen here on 22d July 

 1874. — Id. 



Goshawk and other Rare Birds in Aberdeenshire.— Two specimens 

 ■of the goshawk ( Accipiter palumbarius ) were killed, one on the estate of 

 Firglen, Banffshire, December 23, 1875, the other in the woods of 

 Hazelhead, near Aberdeen, January 22, 1876; both are females, the 

 first mentioned being a bird of the second year, the latter that of the first 

 year. Six specimens of the rough-legged buzzard (Bitteo lagopns) have 

 come under my notice since December last — four of which were killed in 

 various parts of Aberdeenshire, and two in Orkney. — Geo. Sim, Aberdeen. 



Scoparia basistrigalis and Cochylis Smeathmanniana in Scot- 

 land. — Amongst some insects brought to me for names by Mr. W. Herd, 

 I find these two species. They were taken near Perth. I have also taken 

 them near Dunkeld (in 1872). — F. Buchanan White. 



