532 Instinct of Insects. 



may have induced a belief that the Pied Flycatcher has no 

 song whatever, as the spotted species is one of our most silent 

 birds. I am happy, therefore, in being able to claim for the 

 Pied Flycatcher a place among British singing birds. 



Both Montagu and Latham have regarded the Pied Fly- 

 catcher as indigenous to England ; but, in Lancashire, I have 

 never seen this species earlier in the year than April, nor 

 later than September. Its habits indicate a bird which preys 

 principally on insects in their winged or perfect state, and, as 

 such, there can be little doubt that it is migratory. A suffi- 

 cient reason, however, why the fact has not been more clearly 

 ascertained, will be found in its great rarity and partial distri- 

 bution. 



I have long known that the Pied Flycatcher breeds annu- 

 ally in the beautiful woods near UUswater, but I was not 

 aware, before the present summer, that it is to be found in 

 such abundance in that delightful locality. 



I am. Sir, &c. 

 Crumpsall Hall, July 28. 1828. John Blackwall. 



\ Art. VII. On the Instinct of Insects, By J. H. Da vies, Esq. 



Sir, 



It has been asserted that the circuitous flight of the butter- 

 fly tribe arises from one sex pursuing through the air the 

 track of the other ; and that, if an unimpregnated female of 

 the Phalae^na g^uercus (egger moth) be carried in a gauze cage 

 into the haunts of that species, numbers of the males will 

 be attracted, so as to be easily captured. I have never had 

 an opportunity of verifying this fact ; but, from a circumstance 

 which occurred to me during the past year, I have no doubt 

 of its correctness. 



I was engaged in rearing lepidopterous insects from the 

 larvae, and had a great variety of the pupae of different species ; 

 one evening I found a female Sphinx ocellata just emerged, 

 which, in lifting from the floor, ran up my arm, and round 

 the collar of my coat : two hours afterwards, on returning to 

 my study from shutting some glass frames in the garden, a 

 very fine male of the same species was fluttering on my 

 shoulder, where the female had previously crawled. But a 

 stiH more curious fact, which must appear almost incredible, 

 remains to be stated. Two females of the »Sphinx joopuli were 

 developed ; the next day I found three males in the room. As 

 no one had entered it in the interval, nor was there apparently 



