68 The British Naturalist. 



(puss moth), and sometimes by other less common Phalse'nidae. 

 The copious growth of broom in our plantations induced for 

 several seasons the appearance of Phalse^na spartiata (broom 

 moth, Chesias spartiata Stephens)', a species which we had not 

 observed before, and which has disappeared again since the 

 removal of the broom on which the larva feeds. The cater- 

 pillar of Acherontia A'tropos (death's head sphinx), it is well 

 known, feeds on the potato ; the very extensive cultivation 

 of which valuable root in the present day will at once account 

 for the far more frequent occurrence of this fine insect of late 

 years than formerly,* The same law, or something analo- 

 gous to it, holds good also in the vegetable as well as animal 

 world. Plants sometimes spring up, as it were, spontaneously, 

 or, at least, nobody knows how, as soon as the soil and 

 situation are rendered suitable to their growth. The spon- 

 taneous appearance of ^pipactis latifolia in a new-made 

 plantation has already been recorded by one of our corre- 

 spondents in this Magazine (Vol. II. p. 70.), and we have our- 

 selves observed a similar instance in the case of Orobanche 

 major, on our premises, in a spot where gorse { U^lex europae^a) 

 and broom had been introduced and encouraged. 



To advert once more to a subject of ornithology, we must 

 ask, whether our naturalist is not manifestly in error, when 

 he states (p. 373.) that " the crake (Rallus Crex) has a strong 

 muscular gizzard f, like poultry and the other birds that live 

 upon seeds ?" It is never without hesitation that we dare 

 venture an opinion, on a question of ornithology, at variance 

 with that of the British Naturalist: sometimes, however, 

 bonus dormitat Homerus ; and sure we are that the bird in 

 question is one of those which are sometimes vulgarly, though 

 not unaptly, termed by cooks " gut-birds ; " i. e. such as are, 

 and ought to be, dressed woodcock-fashion, without being 

 drawn, and with the trail in them. We have often partaken 

 of this most delicate dish at table ; and on such occasions 

 have, upon examination, never met with " a strong muscular 

 gizzard like poultry;" but, instead, a small bag or stomach, 

 like that of the snipe and woodcock, and have found therein 



* We are Informed by an able practical entomologist, that some of the 

 fir-feeding Lepid6ptera (<S'phinx pinastri ? and Geometra piniaria), which 

 formerly occurred in scarcely any other part of this island save Scotland 

 or the north of England, have of late years, since the growth of firs has 

 been more extensively encouraged, been taken, one or both of them, in 

 great abundance in the more southern parts. See Haworth's Lep. Brit.y 

 p. 278, 279. 



\ A strong muscular gizzard is also attributed (erroneously, as we think) 

 to the water rail (Rallus aquaticus), which, we may add, is likewise a 

 " gut-bird." (vol. i. p. 362.) 



