10 PROTRACTED COKTIKUANCE OF INSECTS IN THE CHRYSALIS STATE. 



very windy, but rather warm for the time of year. When first seen it was 

 resting on an old pollard willow; it flew up, and kept gliding round in circles, 

 when the man shot it. It measured twenty-four inches across the wings, and 

 was ten inches in length. It was rather early for it to appear, and looked 

 somewhat like its breeding here. It is quite a ^rara avis' in these parts, never, 

 I believe, having been obtained above once or twice before. Terns are occa- 

 sionally met with here, though it is so far inland; I saw one myself whilst 

 out in a boat one day, but it flew so high and swift that I could not say 

 what species it was. 



Bing Snake, (Natrix torquata.) — I was walking between Wookingham and 

 Tyford last autumn, when I saw a very large Snake basking in the sun. I 

 immediately ran up and seized it by the back of the head; it twisted round 

 my arm, and tried hard to escape, but finding it could not, it then emitted 

 the most horrid stench I ever smelt; I was soon glad to shake it off, when 

 it quickly wriggled oflF into the hedge. I think I never remember anything 

 so nauseous, and I could not get it out of my clothes and hands for some 

 time. This is a very wise provision of Providence, for without it the Snake 

 seems helpless and unable to defend itself. 



IIenIey-upo7i-Thames. 



PROTRACTED CONTINUANCE 

 OF INSECTS IN THE CHRYSALIS STATE. 



BY STEPHEN STONE, ESQ. 



In vol. ii., page 208 of "The Naturalist," the Rev. F. O. Morris records an 

 instance of a caterpillar of the Large Egger Moth having duly passed into 

 the chrysalis state, and in that state continued without further change through 

 the winter: his after-statement that though alive in the spring "it subsequently 

 proved to have been infested by an Ichneumon," sufiiciently, I think, explains 

 the reason of its so continuing. 



The Ichneumon having deposited its eggs in the body of the caterpillar some 

 time previous to its transformation to the chrysalis state, these eggs in due 

 course produced larvae, which at once, as is their usual wont, commenced 

 feeding upon the body in which they had thxis become domiciled. When the 

 period of its transformation to the chrysalis state arrived, they might not have 

 proceeded so far in their work of destruction as to incapacitate it for under- 

 going that change, but not being as yet fully matured themselves, (their 

 ravages would still go on, until at length they had not only rendered it in- 

 capable of undergoing a further change into the perfect or imago state, but 

 had also in fact completely destroyed its vitality; and the life which it after- 

 wards seemed to possess, would be only the appearance of life imparted to it 

 by the living embryo Ichneumons within it, as a chicken enfeebled by the 

 cold, which we enclose in a stocking, and place by the fire, in order to its 



