Feb. 1, 1S70.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



39 



with a black muzzle, and very vicious. The Dun 

 cow of Dunchurch and Warwick Castle was one." 



H. D. 



I recollect when travelling through the south 

 of Lincolnshire into Norfolk twenty years ago, 

 staying at an inn, in oue of the rooms of which 

 was an enormous scapula fastened up in a corner 

 near the ceiling. On it was this inscription : " Ye 

 Blade bone of ye Wonderful Dun Cow." I was 

 but a boy then, but I remember thinking what a 

 terrific size the cow must have been. 1 am sorry 

 I cannot recollect the name of the place ; but 

 perhaps it is known to some of your readers. 



Hy. Ullyett. 



RARE LARV^, ETC. 



"V|"R. NEWMAN'S work on British moths, ad- 

 - L " J - mirable as it is, shows that there are still 

 many species of which the caterpillars are either 

 utterly or almost unknown, or strange to us but for 

 descriptions in foreign manuals. Having paid some 

 attention during the past year to the lepidoptera of 

 this district, I am able to supply one or two of the 

 omissions in that work ; and I have no doubt that, 

 if entomology continues to be as popular as it now 

 is, almost every one of these obscure larvse will in a 

 few years be brought to light. 



Larvce of Cidaria miata. — Of this caterpillar, so 

 rarely seen as to be unknown to the celebrated 

 Guenee, Newman obtains his very slender informa- 

 tion from " Stainton's Manual." It was common 

 near Richmond last season. With the help of my 

 sons, I found about twenty, almost all on low willow 

 bushes, with which the banks of the Swale abound. 

 On whitethorn we found, I think, only one, and one 

 on poplar. They were all obtained between the 

 middle and end of July, by careful search, not by 

 beating, and appear to be tolerably hardy, as we 

 succeeded in rearing about three-fifths. As might 

 be expected, they closely resemble the larvse of 

 Cidaria psittacata, being almost uniformly cylindri- 

 cal, without humps, and having the two points pro- 

 jecting from the anal segment; but the colour is 

 remarkably uniform, and darker below than above, 

 a peculiarity which, wherever it exists in animals, 

 gives a somewhat singular appearance. The dorsal 

 area is pale yellowish-green, the ventral dull red. 

 As they always feed with their backs downwards, 

 this gives them the exact appearance of the main 

 rib of a willow-leaf, and makes them very difficult to 

 discover, especially as, though long for the size of 

 the moth, they are very slender, even when full fed. 

 The chrysalis, contained in a very slight cocoon, is 

 of a rich warm brown. 



Larva of Eunomos tiliaria. — Mr. Battersby has 

 found this caterpillar several times in Ireland, and 

 described it; but no English specimen has, I believe, 



yet been made known. The day after I first found 

 Cidaria miata, and within a yard of the same spot, 

 I discovered another strange geometer, which proved 

 to be the larva of the beautiful canary-shouldered 

 Thorn. It also frequents low sallows; the only 

 other specimen we found being a magnificent full- 

 grown one, on a bush scarcely more than a foot 

 high. Treitsche's description is fairly correct as far 

 as it goes :—" Wrinkled, brown, marbled with darker 

 brown, with humps on the sixth and tenth seg- 

 ments, gradually increasing in size." But both he 

 and Mr. Battersby have omitted the most distinctive 

 mark of the species ; at least it was so in both my 

 specimens. In front of the first hump is a large 

 oblong, or, more correctly speaking, trapezoidal 

 spot, of a very dark brown, and another before the 

 last hump, of exactly the same shape, but still 

 larger, corresponding to the increased bulk of the 

 body. It spins a compact web, and the chrysalis 

 must be very handsome, judging from the shell after 

 emergence, which is of a beautiful orange tint. 



Folia flavocincta (the large ranunculus) is given 

 by Newman as unknown in the north of England. 

 It was rather common here in] all its stages last 

 summer. 



It may interest some of your readers to know 

 that the banks of the Swale seem to be " the happy 

 hunting-grounds " of all who want Puss-moths and 

 kittens. Of the former we found, in July and 

 August, within a range of three or four miles, and 

 close to the water, about two hundred larvaa; in fact, 

 a great many more than we cared to take. It was 

 painful, however, to see a fine kitten larva attacked 

 and stung to death by a wasp. We afterwards 

 found another (a half-grown puss) evidently de- 

 stroyed in the same manner. 



Richmond, Yorkshire. G. P. Hakris. 



ROSEMARY AND RUE. 



" Reverend sirs, 

 For you there's Rosemary and Rue ; these keep 

 Seeming and savour aU the winter long: 

 Grace and remembrance be to you both," 



Says Perdita in the "Winter's Tale"; and, 

 although Rosemary is not, strictly speaking, an herb, 

 I am inclined, on account of its many virtues, old 

 associations, and far-off memories, to place it side 

 by side with the herb of grace in my herb-garden, 

 as the Bard of Avon has, .in the above passage, 

 joined the twain together in his immortal verse. 



The names by which this evergreen is known in 

 all foreign languages have reference to'some especial 

 use or property. Herba coronaria, one of its Latin 

 appellations, alludes to its being employed with 

 other plants in the formation of wreaths and chap- 

 lets; whilst the generic name Bos, dew, and Marinas, 

 of the sea, betokens its habitat — the rocks of the 

 southern countries of Europe. Perhaps some 



