The Scottish JVat?iralist. 173 



Altvater, at a considerable height, it appears to take the place of 

 /estiva. 



Upon the moors of the Upper Harz, a very small pale form of 

 the festiva appears, which, however, certainly belongs to this 

 species. I have never found in it any approach to conflua. 



Professor Frey gives the most varied localities for festiva, from 

 the lower region of the Swiss territory, and up to Sils-Maria in the 

 Upper Engadine at a height of about 5500 feet, as well as upon 

 the border between the lower and upper Alpine regions (in Frey's 

 sense) ; but for conflua he gives only the Bernese Alps, without 

 mentioning the height, Belchen, Engelberg, and Eigenthal. The 

 last three localities, with a height of about 3000 feet, lie upon the 

 border between the lower and upper mountain regions (in Frey's 

 sense). 



I will just point out that, for these considerations, conflua can- 

 not be referred with absolute certainty as a mere mountain form 

 to festiva, since the latter has been observed commonly in the 

 mountains, at the same height as conflua, sometimes indeed even 

 higher. 



With regard to accelerated development, I may further remark 

 that I have seen at Dr. Bodemeyer's a number of Agrotis Rubi 

 View (Mia Bkh.), also reared with abundance of food and artifi- 

 cial warmth, which were very large, and resembled Agrotis florida 

 Schmidt, but did not quite agree with that form. 



Dr. Rossler tries to give an explanation of such modifications 

 in his work, "Die Schuppenflugler, &c." (introduction, page 9), 

 which certainly deserves every attention. Probably, we shall be 

 able to attain full certainty on these questions, only when we have 

 succeeded in rearing several generations from the egg. 



13. Agrotis glareosaEsp. var. (Noctua Glareosa Esp.) One 

 specimen, with dark brown instead of gray ground colour. Ento- 

 mologist, I884; plate 1, fig. 1 ; August. 



14. Agrotis lucernea L. Frey, Alp.; Stgr. and Wk. Cat. 

 Fen.; Norv. Alp. (Dovrefield), according to Staudinger. Large 

 and dark examples. July, rare. 



* 15. Agrotis cursoria Hufn. and aberr. sagitta Stgr.; 

 aberr. obscura Stgr. ; Stgr. and Wk. Cat. Fen. 



The cursoria of the Shetland Islands (I saw four specimens) are 

 smaller than our North German examples, for the most part 

 uniformly greenish yellow brown; but darker brown specimens 



