334 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SRLFXTED. 



and on his starting; back to his house, about a mile off in the wood, a lantern 

 was suggested. With this he set out, and, on arriving at a 40 -acre wood, he 

 thought he would go down the main ride to his house. No sooner had he 

 shut the gate, which made some little noise, than he was surrounded by 

 numbers of woodpigeons, attracted by the light, which flew around him, 

 knocking off his hat. Havdng a stick in his hand, he struck at them for some 

 minutes, knocking a great many down ; but eventually had to beat a retreat 

 and go home outside the wood. Early the next morning he went to the spot, 

 and picked up 21 pigeons on the ride and close by. This seems to me a most 

 remarkable occurrence. 1 may add that my head keeper is a man of great 

 experience of animal life, and has never before seen or heard of such an 

 extraordinary thing. There are hundreds of woodpigeons here this year, 

 owing to the number of acorns. The darkness was so great that no light was 

 visible above or below except for a few feet." 



INSECT A . 



Rare Sphingidas in Essex. — When looking over the collections of Mr. 

 W. H. B. Fletcher, at Bognor, I came across two specimens which are worth 

 recording with a view to inclusion in any county list of Lepidoptera that may 

 be compiled. The first, Chaivcainpa celeiic, has the following inscription on 

 the label .• — " Taken off a wall in Queen's Road, Upton Park, E.ssex, by a 

 working man named Bond, who gave it to the late Mr. W. C. Dale on 

 July i2th, 18S3. Mr. Dale, then of Jeville Road, Worthing, gave it to me 

 [W.H.B.F.] in June 1888." 



The other specimen is Deilepliila galii labelled " Tottenham, July, 1859," 

 from the late Mr. Howard Vaughan's collection. Tottenham is perhaps 

 hardly within the county but it is on the border, — (Prof.) R. Meldola 



ACARINA. 



Black Currant Bud — Gall Mites. Phytoptiis ribis. — This pest is 

 proving very destructive to Black Currants throughout the country and 

 the damage is becoming more extensive every year. Although it has been 

 known for over half a century, it is only within the last eight or nine years 

 that it has attracted so much attention. In Kent the Black Currant crop has 

 been much reduced of late years, and I hear of it from many places in the 

 West of England and elsewhere. I have also lately heard of several instances 

 in different parts of Essex where the Mite is very prevalent. The buds swell 

 up in late summer and autumn, and when they burst in the following spring 

 they grow for a short time only, and the result is that there is little or no 

 fruit. The Mite is a different species to that which attacks the Hazel and 

 causes the buds to swell in the same way. Two other species have a similar 

 effect upon the buds of the Birch and Yew. The greater part of their exist- 

 ence is spent inside the buds where they occur in thousands, and this consti- 

 tutes the great difficulty in destroying them, as no " wash " can get at them. 

 They are to a certain extent spread by birds, and bushes can also be attacked 

 through the medium of infected soil. I have lately been trying various 

 methods with a view to getting rid of the pest, including fumigation with 

 hydrocyanic acid gas. I have not up to the present time met with any 



