53St Short Communications : — 



mon occurrence." In these flies there was not (so far as 1 

 remember) any sign of transfusion or eruption of juices; and, 

 perhaps, as flies are sometimes poisoned, it may not be very 

 unreasonable to suppose symptoms of an eruption of juices to 

 mark death from plethora ; and non-appearance of eruption, 

 death from poison. The following case, judged by this 

 assumed rule, may be one of death from poison : — Mr. 

 Godsall, nurseryman, of Hereford, has observed the pavement, 

 under a blooming plant of Periploca grae^ca, to be literally 

 covered with dead flies, of the species of Afusca domestica; 

 and, at the same time, a great quantity of the same species 

 swarming and settling on the blossoms of the same plant. 

 He attributes, in consequence, some quality deleterious to 

 flies to the flowers of this plant. {Gardener' sMagazine^iyi, 586.) 



Timdrcha coridria F. — The dates and places of capture 

 which I have, in VI. 533., ascribed to Timdrcha tenebric5sa 

 i^., belong to T. coriaria F. — James FennelL Mai/, 1834. 



Polyommatus Alexis, — My remarks, in V. 768., on " Poly- 

 ommatus Argiolus double-brooded,'* belong, not to P. Argio- 

 lu5, but to P. Alexia, as a better acquaintance with natural 

 history has convinced me. — Id. 



The Colour of the Eggs of the Puss Moth (Cerura vinula), — 

 Professor Rennie has stated, in his Insect Transformations, 

 p. 35., that Cerura vinula lays " shining brown eggs." I 

 have twice found them, and, on each occasion, of a pale 

 green colour ; and have observed that they do not become 

 of a " shining brown" colour until they are near hatching, — 

 J. H.F. 



The Moth Agldia tail is of active Habits. — " Moths are 

 always indolent." (Author of The British Naturalist as 

 quoted by A. R. Y. in V. 60.) From this remark I presume 

 that the author had never had what the schoolboys call " a 

 regular chevy" after Aglaia tau. - P. J. Brown, Thun, Canton 

 of Berne, Switzerland, April, 5. 1833. 



\_Habits of the Maeroglossa stellatdrum observed, July, 1833, 

 at Little Hampton, on the Coast of Sussex. (475.)] — There is, 

 in front of the beach houses, a piece of sandy heath, of some 

 acres in extent, which forms a very agreeable promenade for 

 the visiters. I here observed the humming-bird hawk moth ; 

 not one only here and there, but numbers dashing about in 

 various directions. The first I captured was hovering over a 

 flower, and extracting the nectar from it with its curiously 

 long tubular proboscis. They frequented much a stone wall 

 at the end of Lord Surrey*s grounds, along which they were 

 constantly flying, and apparently examining it with great 

 attention. As there were no flowers there, I was at a loss to 



