92 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS, 



it is by no means of rare occurrence, and may be found 

 on most currant-bushes, and often on hawthorns, &c. 

 around London. The envelope of the eggs is of a 

 chestnut-brown colour. 



A much more singular species occurs in company 

 with the preceding, and abounds on the currant- 

 bushes at Lee. From their resemblance to the form 

 of one of the valves of a mussel-shell, Reaumur 

 named this species en coquille (Coccus conchiformis^ 

 Gmelin). He says, it imposed upon him for several 

 years, as he supposed it to be the cocoon of some 

 minute insect about to go into the pupa state; but he 

 was undeceived by finding them full of eggs. We 

 were more disposed, at first, to look upon them as a 

 subcortical fungus (such as Cuciirbitaria Berberidisy 

 Grev., or Cryptosph(eria Pteridis, Sowerb.), for, 

 during the winter, when we first observed them, they 

 appeared exactly like a little slip of the bark elevated 

 by the growth of a fungus below it. Then they were 

 so crowded on some branches, that not a hair's breadth 

 of the bark remained uncovered. When, however, 

 we found these minute bark-like scales full of eggs, we 

 were iiiclined to conjecture that they had been depo- 

 sited by saw-flies cutting into the bark ; but this was 

 instantly disproved by removing them, and finding 

 the bark below sound and uncut. Rt^aumur put the 

 matter beyond dispute by actually hatching ihe 

 eggs, when insects were produced similar to other 

 cocci. But our species, found on the currant-bush, 

 seems to differ from his of the elm, not in form and 

 colour, but in habit, being gregarious, while his was 

 subsolitary *. 



During the severe frost of 1829-30, we observed 

 several small birds, such as the long-tailed titmouse 

 {Parus cmidatus), and the gold crested wren {Regu- 

 * J. R. 



