Ixxx Journal of Proceed imja, 



near Malclon, although it may have done so some years since." Mr. 

 Cole added that the value of Mr. Varley's specimens lay in the fact 

 that, as the pupcP were obtained in their natural habitat, the insects 

 must have bred there, and were not the result of an importation by 

 some enthusiastic lepidopterist. 



Mr. English remarked that between the years 1848 and 1850, the late 

 Mr. Doubleday turned out a number of PapiUo Machaon in parts of the 

 Epping Forest district, as well as GaUimarpha dominula, but the butterfly 

 did not establish itself. 



The Secretary read some extracts from a letter received from Mr. E. ]\I. 

 Christy, concerning the earlier stages of P. Machaon, which he had 

 observed in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire. "It is strange that the eggs 

 are more easily procured than the caterpillars. They are little shiny 

 white, semi-transparent globules, and are deposited singly on the leaves 

 of the Peucedanum palmtre, or Hog's Fennel, growing so abundantly in 

 the fens. When about a quarter of an inch long the caterpillar is almost 

 black, with a large white spot on its back about the centre of its body. 

 It is also very much bigger at one end than the other. At its various 

 moults it gradually becomes more and more like the brightly striped, 

 black and green, full-grown caterpillar." 



A "List of the Hymenomycetal Fungi of Ejiping Forest," was com- 

 municated by Dr. M. C. Cooke [Transactions, ii. 181]. The list 

 enumerated 199 species. 



Mr. English remarked that his own researches would enable him to 

 largely increase the list, and he promised to prepare a catalogue of those 

 species he had himself gathered in the Forest districts, and send it to the 

 Secretary. 



Mr. J. Travis, of Saffron Walden, communicated the following records 

 of a few rare birds caught in Essex, received by him recently for preser- 

 vation : — 



(1) Eed-neckei) Phalarope {Phalaropus Ityperhoreus), taken October 

 14th, 1881, on the lake at Debden Hall, near Saffron Walden. An old 

 male in winter plumage. 



(2) Eared Grebe [Podiceps auritus), taken at the same time and place 

 after an hour's chase on the lake. A young male bird in poor condition. 

 Its stomach contained a rounded and flattened mass of feathers — presum- 

 ably its own — mixed with remains of small fish. 



(3) Cormorant {Phalacrocorax Carlo). Two young specimens taken 

 by Mr. H. Webb, Streetly Hall, near Wickham, on September 7th. 



(1) Buffon's Skua {Le.stris Butf'ouii). A specimen was picked up in an 

 extremely emaciated condition near Wimbish, about the beginning of 

 November, 1881. [From a subsequent letter from Mr. Travis.] 



The thanks of the Society were returned to the authors, and the usual 

 conversazione concluded the Meeting. 



