96 MISCELLAIfEOTJS IfOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



be at 1"15 a.m., but I bad been roused, as well as two others in 

 the bouse, by the noise about four minutes before, and about the 

 same number of minutes after, the great disturbance ceased." The 

 coincidence in the time of occurrence of the whirlwind, at two 

 places so distant from each other, is remarkable. — John Hopkinson, 

 Watford. 



Entomology. 



A Cloud of Butterflies.— On the 1 8th of July, as Mr. P. Procter 

 was driving from Leighton Buzzard to The Hoo, Great Gaddesden, 

 he was stopped by an agricultural labourer, who told him that he 

 had better go round in another direction as " the road was blocked 

 by butterflies." Mr. Procter treated the story as a hoax, and 

 drove on. On reaching the lane between the " Cross-Hands " 

 public-house and Hudnal Common, he was quickly xmdeceived ; a 

 cloud of common white butterflies, supposed to have been the 

 larger white cabbage-butterfly {Pieris Brmsicce), presented a dense 

 fluttering mass, extending twenty or thirty yards along the lane. 

 Mr. Procter describes them as appearing " as thick as a swarm of 

 bees," and states that it was with difficulty that he forced his 

 horse through them. — John E. Littleloy, Hunton Bridge. 



Ornithology. 



A Cuchoo laying in a Swalloic^s Nest. — My son, Mr. P. Rooper, 

 some years since took the egg of a cuckoo out of a swallow's nest 

 built under the bridge in Cassiobury Park. I do not remember 

 any record of this egg being found in a swallow's nest,* but there 

 is nothing extraordinary in it, the swallow being insectivorous. 

 The fact, however, is interesting, as from its position the egg must 

 have been placed in the nest by means of the cuckoo's beak. From 

 the situation and form of the nest, it could not possibly have been 

 laid in the ordinary way. — George Rooper, Watford. 



* There appears to be only one other instance known, recorded in onr ' Trans- 

 actious ' by Dr. Brett (' Trans. Watford Nat. Hist. Soc.,' Vol. I, p. 136).— Ed. 



