42 NOTES ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



the Seven-spotted Ladybird (Coccinella y-punctata) was noticed in 

 numbers on the potatoes both as adults and larvae, and the latter 

 when placed in a box with eggs of the DovypJiova ate them 

 ravenously. A small Hemipterou, a green Nemovcovis (?) was also 

 seen wandering about among the larvae, and may have been 

 sucking the body juices, as several species do in America. The 

 above facts are mainly taken from a very interesting report to 

 the Board of x\griculture by Prof. F. V. Theobald (Journal, vol. 

 viii., pp. 147-154). Under the terms of the " Colorado Beetle 

 Order, 1877," if Dovyphova is found wandering around anywhere, 

 notice must be at once given to a constable ( ! ), but please also 

 send the errant beetles to the Essex Museum of Natural 

 History. — Ed. 



Brown-tail Moth and Birds. — On the Essex coast, at 

 St. Osyth, we found (in August last) a specimen of this motii 

 (Povtliesia chvysovvhoca) empaled upon the spine of a furze bush, 

 probably by the butcher-bird or red-backed shrike (Lanins 

 colluvio). The caterpillars of the brown-tail moth have again been 

 very common on the coast, and they certainly are " protected 

 animals," with their bright colours and tufts of hairs ; the cuckoo 

 is said to be the only bird that will eat them. I had imagined 

 that the perfect moth was likewise distasteful to birds. But we 

 noticed that a pair of sparrows, who had set up liousekeeping in 

 the roof of the Martello Tower at St. Osyth, constantly fed their 

 young on the moths, which they took off the hedges surrounding 

 the tower. On one occasion as we watched, the cock bird 

 brought in nine specimens in a very short time, and he stuck to 

 his work from morn till eve. I have since found, on reference 

 to Prof. Poulton's Colours of Animals, that this curious exception 

 (the larva being a protected form and the perfect insect an 

 edible one) has been noticed in the allied Porthesia aurifliia 

 (the gold-tail moth). The Professor is inclined to think that 

 P. anrifliia is a mimicker of the white-satin moth, Stilt>notia salicis, 

 which he has proved experimentally to be unpalatable to 

 insectivorous animals. — W. Cole, Biickhurst Hill. 



Bats (?) and Birds Catching Moths.— At the meet- 

 ing of the Club, on November 8th, I exhibited a number 

 of wings of crepuscular and night-flying moths, which had 

 been found on the floor of the verandah facing the garden, at 



