MISCELLANY. 38 1 



pair which I took on Parley Heath about twelve years ago ; and I believe I took 

 last year the A. unicolor, which would appear from his work to be doubtful as 

 British, giving it only as the type of a genus. If not a species, A. unicolor 

 is a black variety of the former. — J. C. Dale, Glanville's Wootton, Dorsetshire, 

 July 9, 1837. 



Is the " Soldier insect" commonly Carnivorous ? — While digging in the 

 garden some time since, I turned up a chrysalis of the large orange Under-wing 

 Moth (Triphcena innuba), but was disappointed to find that the original tenant 

 had been ejected from his chamber, or rather injected into the mouth of one of 

 those insects known among school-boys by the name of " soldiers " (an allied 

 species enjoying the name of " sailor," the latter having a blue, the other a red 

 uniform).* He was feeding on the remains of a defunct chrysalis, yet both 

 were buried under ground, where the chrysalis must have been lying since the 

 time of its transformation. How is all this to be explained, and does it fre- 

 quently occur ? as I was not aware that these insects partook of the carnivo- 

 rous nature of the Carabidm, from which in systems they are so far removed. — 

 Francis Orpen Morris, Beechfield House, near Doncaster, Aug. 17, 1837. 



The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) near Scarborough. — This 

 bird is now and then met with here. The specimen in my collection was shot 

 under the Castle cliff at Scarborough. For some years a pair of Peregrine Fal- 

 cons have been known to breed in the cliffs overhanging the sea in Newbiggin 

 Wyke, a wild unfrequented part of the coast, a few miles south of Scarborough. 

 — Patrick Hawkridge, Scarborough, Aug. 7, 1837- 



The Grey Flycatcher's mode of taking its Food. — The manner in which 

 the Grey Flycatcher captures its tiny prey is interesting in the extreme, and 

 although every one at all alive to the charms of the feathered race, as noticed in 

 their daily frolics in the woods and fields, must have frequently watched the ma- 

 noeuvre alluded to, yet it is not, in our opinion, the less interesting on that ac- 

 count. You see one or more of these birds perched on the top of a wall, the top- 

 most branch of a naked tree, or almost any other commanding situation, and 

 certainly the casual observer would have no idea of the object it had in view, so 

 listlessly does it stand on its favourite pinnacle, and so easy and graceful are its 

 motions, even after it has flitted into the air to seize the puny morsel. Yet it 

 probably never misses its prey, the capture of which is announced by a snap 'of 

 the bill, audible at a distance of many yards. "We noticed four adult individuals 

 of this species the other day, catching flies near the lake in Campsall Park, mak- 



* It has also been said— we know not with what truth — that these two insects never meet with- 

 out fighting. Certain species of Umbelliferous plants have their flowers constantly covered with 

 the " soldiers," and are, in fact, seldom seen without a number of them.— En. 



