376 Dr. Buchanan on the Wound of the Ferret. 



albis notata ; serieque marginali lunularura argenteo-albarura. 

 Exp. alar. 4 una vel 102 mill 

 Hab. Bolivia (Mr. Bridges). 



Above, all the wings coppery-green, inclining to olivaceous ; 

 the anterior with a transverse curved macular yellowish band, 

 commencing a little below the costa, beyond the cell, and ter- 

 minating near the anal angle; between it and the apex three 

 rounded spots of the same colour, and the faint indication of 

 two similar spots within it, between the median nervules. Cilia 

 spotted with white. Posterior wings with a series of greenish 

 yellow lunules near the hinder margin. Cilia between the teeth 

 white. 



Below, the anterior wings are black, with green reflection ; 

 the apex and outer margin occupied by a broad band of a dull 

 greenish yellow, narrower and macular towards the anal angle ; 

 the outer margin very narrowly fuscous, except at the anal angle, 

 where the margin is broader ; the cell with two slender whitish 

 lines towards the base. Posterior wings dull greenish yellow ; 

 the nervules and a Y-shaped vitta in the cell black ; a black band 

 traverses the wing beyond the cell, marked with a series of sil- 

 very-white spots between the nervules, all of which are geminate 

 except the first and last. On the margin itself a series of white 

 lunules, bordered internally with black, shading to purplish and 

 green, the black prolonged nearly to the transverse band. Cilia 

 between the teeth white. 



Head black, spotted with white. 



Thorax bronzy black above ; sides yellowish. 



Abdomen bronzy green above, yellow at the sides, black, spot- 

 ted with white below. 



In the collection of the British Museum. 



Allied to P. Archidamus, but easily distinguished by the cha- 

 racter given above. 



XLII. — On the Wound of the Ferret, with Observations on the 

 Instincts of Animals. By Andrew Buchanan, M.D., Pro- 

 fessor of the Institutes of Medicine, University of Glasgow *. 



Having often heard of the remarkable way in which the Ferret 

 destroys its victims, I willingly availed myself of an opportunity 

 presented to me on the 26th of August last (1845), of seeing two 

 rats killed by this animal. I found the common account quite 

 correct, that the Ferret kills by means of a small wound in the 

 neck ; but the explanation usually annexed I found quite erro- 

 neous, that the Ferret aims at the jugular vein, and destroys life 



* Read before the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, and communicated 

 by the Author. 



