136 JIISCELLAXKOrS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



recently felled on this place.* Of these, the majority survived 

 their imprisonment in a tin box but a few weeks ; several, how- 

 ever, took fi'cely to the oak splinters provided as food, and buried 

 themselves in the wood, where, although too deep to be seen, I 

 believe them to be now alive. One, of larj^e size, about the end of 

 September spun for himself a cocoon in the angle of the bottom 

 of the box, under about two inches of dry earth, and was then 

 supposed to have passed into the pupa state. A few diTys ago this 

 same caterpillar emerged from his cocoon in his original form, but 

 much increased in size, and is now as vigorous as ever. He must 

 have been wholly without food for upwards of six months. As is 

 well known, the larva of this moth retains its fonn for three years, 

 and its ordinary habitat, deep in the trunk of a tree, is consistent 

 with hybernation ; but I do not remember any entomological 

 authority for asserting that it can exist for long periods without 

 food, so that the case above stated may be of some value and 

 interest. Perhaps some member of the Society will infonn us 

 what is known touching the condition in winter of these insects in 

 a natural state. — J. Henry James, Kingswood, Watford. 



OKXITHOLOGY. 



Notes on the CucJcoo.—On the 26th, 28th, and 30th of May, 

 1876, a female cuckoo came hovering about a stable Avail covered 

 with ivy a few yards from, and opposite, Wiggenhall House, "Wat- 

 ford ; apparently she was endeavouring to find food or a nest. She 

 remained from one to two hours each time. She did not make any 

 cry. In 1875 a cuckoo was hatched in a pied wagtail's nest built 

 in a corn rick, and another in ivy covering a wall. One was found 

 on the ground dead, perhaps starved. Mr. J. King has had it 

 stuffed. In 1874 a cuckoo was hatched in a swallow's nest in a 

 potting shed near the house at Wiggenhall. I saw it quite filling 

 the nest, which appeared to be much too small for it. Two facts 

 seemed to me unusual — first, that the cuckoo should lay an egg in 

 a nest under cover so near the house ; secondly, that she should 

 lay in a swallow's nest. No mention is made by Yarrell in his 

 'History of British Eirds ' (2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 191) of the nest of 

 this bird as one of those in which the cuckoo lays. — Alfred T. 

 Brett, M.D., Watford House. 



* Vide ' Transactions,' vol. i. pt. 2, p. 64. 



