138 BEaiNNING OF THE HUNTINQ SEASON. 



R. P. Alington had, not long before written me word that he had found 

 several of this fine insect this spring, which had lived through the winter. 

 He took them at sugar in the same place, near his own house at Swin- 

 hope, Lincolnshire, where he had met with them in the autumn ^^in profusion," 

 so much so as in the end not to think them worth capturing. That the 

 large moth I saw was of this species, is rendered more probable by the 

 fact of our having the same evening found other autumnal species at the 

 sugar, namely, Glcea salellitia and vaccinii. 



The next morning, "April the 1st.," we tried Langwith Common, a 

 "splendid locality," abounding in birch, oak, fir, etc., and took one each 

 of Brepha Partlienias, and saw several others, but the wind was so high 

 that it blew them away. I also saw three Vanessa G-nlhwiiy (as well as 

 several 7o,) and captured the first two of the former. While coming up to 

 one of them something like a leaf foil down at the foot of a small oak 

 tree, and after some search, thinking it might possibly be a moth, I was 

 Agreeably surprised by seeing it to be a fine Ceropacha flavicornis, just 

 about to fly off, but I was down upon it in a trice. On the trunk of a 

 tree I captured a fine Xylocamjya Lithoriza. 



On the 5th, instant, returning home from a friend's house, I went a 

 little round so as to come through Buttercrambe Moor, a "first-rate locality." 

 There I took another Partlienias, and saw one or two more^ but I did 

 not stay above half an hour. On the 7th. instant, I again visited Lang- 

 with Common with Mr. Read, but only took a dozen or so of Chimabacche 

 fagella, another Xylocampa Lithoriza, and two or three small Tortrices. 



In Mr. Stainton's ^'Entomologist's Annual," for 1856, he gives the fol- 

 lowing sizes of pins — to be had of Edelsten and Williams, Crown Court, 

 Cheapside, London — as the best to use for the different sizes of Lepidoptera, 

 from the large Sphinx Moth down to the minute Tinea: — Nos. G, 8, 10, 

 19, and 20; but I think the following a much better selection, and suggest 

 it with confidence accordingly: — JTos. 13, 8, 9, 10, and 19. 



Of these, No. 13 is for the Sphinges and larger Bomhyces; No. 8 for the 

 larger Butterflies Noctuce and Geometrce; Nos. 9 and 10 for the smaller Butter- 

 flies, smaller Geometrce, and Tortrices; and 'No. 19 for the Tinece; and 

 other the smallest moths. Nos. 9 and 10 are invaluable sizes, and may be used 

 with the greatest advantage for all the sorts of insects I have named, 

 as well as for all the smaller Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, etc. The 

 Smaller the pin the better the insect naturally looks; No. 19 is, however, so 

 very small, that I do not recommend it for "insertion work," except for the 

 very smallest Moths, where no other can be used. Five sizes, those I have 

 mentioned, will be found amply sufficient for all purposes. 



No. 10 is also the size to be used for labels. They, too, look better 

 the smaller the pins, and this one is strong enough, while those of the 



