ON THE GENUS ORGYIA. 343 



do in this country. As before remarked, I have constantly found it to affect 

 umbrageous Elms, evincing so marked a predilection for this particular tree, that 

 the species might have been named very appropriately the Elm Bunting. Its 

 song is comparatively seldom heard from the hedge. I have repeatedly met with 

 it, indeed with several individuals, singing from the tops of a clump of Elms 

 surrounding a farm-house, which, throughout the south of England, is a very 

 likely situation to meet with it. It is rarely noticed but within a few miles of 

 the sea, and appears to be most abundant in certain districts of the Isle of 

 Wight. Near Chichester, and again at Alton, it is not uncommon ; and lately, 

 while enjoying the view from the summit of Selborne Church, I noticed two of 

 them singing in the vicar's garden beneath me, though the species was unnoticed 

 by Gilbert White. Proceeding inland it rapidly disappears, and at Godalming 

 is accounted a rare bird. Now and then a specimen is taken, mostly in winter, 

 by the London bird-catchers, who seem to consider it a prize ; but it can only 

 be regarded as a straggler near the metropolis. It is sparingly diffused over the 

 greater part of Hampshire, and also, I should suspect, Dorsetshire ; but I cannot 

 speak from personal observation to the westward of Hants. It is popularly 

 known in the Isle of Wight by the name " French Yellowhammer," and par- 

 tially, both there and elsewhere, by the term " Black-throated Yellowhammer," 

 which are the only provincial epithets I have heard applied to it. The young appear 

 to be extremely hardy, for during a pedestrian tour I carried one in a box in my 

 coat-pocket for several days, feeding it on what various fare I could pick up by 

 the way. This bird is now alive and healthy. I captured it near Yarmouth in 

 the Isle of Wight. 



North Brixton, Surrey, Aug. 19, 1837. 



A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENUS ORGYIA. 

 By G. C. Gascoyne. 



Two of the principal entomological works referred to by students in that 

 science in this country, namely Stephens's and Rennie's, differ so widely in 

 the descriptions of the Orgyia, and are altogether so imperfect (to say the least 

 of it) in that part referring to the larvae, that any one previously unacquainted 

 from actual observation would not be able, from their descriptions — even if he 

 had a caterpillar of Orgyia gonostigma before him — to recognize it as belonging to 

 that insect. 



The genus orgyia contains only two species, Orgyia antiqua and 0. gonostigma. 



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