NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 205 



BIRDS. 

 Occurrence of the Osprey in Essex. — Mr. H. C. Tower 

 writes from Weald Hall, Brentwood, to Mr. Miller Christy, as 

 follows : — 



An Osprey {Pandion haliaetus) appeared last year and stopped 

 in this Park from Sunday, Oct. ii, till Saturday, the 24th of the 

 same month. It was last seen at 10 a.m. on that day. 



When it first came it was very tame, coming and taking- 

 some gold-fish out of a pond in the garden where some gardeners 

 were working. Afterwards, it generally took up a position on 

 the dead bough of a tree on an island in the Big Lake, where it 

 was occasionally mobbed by rooks, for whom, however, it 

 appeared to have a supreme contempt. 



There is absolutely no doubt about its identity, as both my 

 father and brother saw it frequently with the naked eye and also 

 through a telescope. 



It was, of course, protected, and notice was given round 

 about, so that it should not be shot. 



INSECTS. 



The " Painted Lady Butterfly." — Continuing the notes on 



the remarkable apparition of Cynthia cardiii on our coasts last 



autumn [ante pp. 129-13 1) it will be interesting to quote a few 



paragraphs from an excellent paper by the well-known natural 



history artist, Mr. F. W. Frohawk, F.E.S., in the Field for 



November 14th : — 



" Until recent years, the sudden appearance of this beautiful butterfly in 

 extraordinary abundance in certain seasons puzzled the best of observers. The 

 older writers on entomology were quite at a loss to account for the erratic habits 

 of the Painted Lady [Cynthia cardui.) and some other migratory species, such as 

 the Clouded Yellow {Colias edusa), the Pale Clouded Yellow {C. hyale), the 

 Queen of Spain Fritillary {Argynnis lathonia), the Chequered White [Pieris 

 daplidice), and the Camber well Beauty [Vanessa antiopd). The occurrence of 

 all these butterflies in this country is due to immigration ; although they are 

 common continental species occurring on the opposite coasts of France, yet the 

 English winter climate is apparently wholly unsuitable for their existence." 



After sketching the life-history of the insect Mr. Frohawk' 

 continues : — 



" Frequently years pass without hardly a specimen being seen, but then may 

 come a year, such as the present season, when a sudden and vast invasion takes 

 place, arriving in hundreds of thousands along our shores, and dispersing 

 themselves throughout the country, and great numbers find their way to Ireland, 



