166 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



I made an interesting observation at Eastbourne last year. Out- 

 side the house where I stayed was a row of lime trees, and on arriving 

 home to lunch one day I was surprised to see a male House Sparrow 

 going over a tree trunk like a Tree Creeper, clinging to it and using 

 its spread tail as a support. It gathered a number of small insects in 

 its beak, stopped to eat them, and then went on with the searching. 

 I made an examination of the tree trunk and found the insects con- 

 sisted of gnats and black aphides. It allowed my wife and myself to 

 stand within three feet of it, so there was no mistaking what it was 

 doing. Now I submit that if this bird could see such small insects, 

 he would not be likely to pass over a moth whether it were T. psi, A. 

 aceris, or any other. 



I should like to mention that in East Dulwich, although the larvae 

 of T. psi are fairly plentiful, quite 75% every year are stung by a 

 dipterous parasite, each larva yielding two, three, or four fiy pupae. 

 Why does not "protective resemblance" or "warning colouration" 

 operate here? It is just as well that they do not, otherwise we should 

 probably have the trees stripped of leaves. I may also mention that 

 the lime trunks in Eastbourne, on which T. jisi rests, are as dark as 

 those in East Dulwich, yet in the former place, the moth is pale. 

 Melanism is brought about in various ways, moisture may be the cause 

 in some districts, but I should not call Dulwich a damp place, nor the 

 rabbit holes in the New Forest — the habitat of melanic Gnoplw^ dhucur- 

 ata. I have a series of Euiaturija {F'idonia) atoniaria from a number 

 of localities. A row of males sent me by Dr. Cockayne from marshy 

 ground in Berkshire are bright pale yellow, a series of males from the 

 Downs of Kent are a deep rich yellow, and all are large specimens. 

 The Downs are often enveloped in clouds and " Scotch " mist falls, 

 when in the adjacent lowland country everything is quite dry. On the 

 contrary a series taken on dry heaths in Surrey and Hampshire are 

 quite melanic and small. The latter I attribute to dry and non- 

 succulent foodplant. 



Take another species — l^acJiyija^tria {l-jO)iibi/,r) trifolii. Specimens 

 taken at Eastbourne are as dark as those from the New Forest and 

 Lancashire, with only an occasional pale specimen, whereas in an 

 exactly identical locality not many miles away, near Romney Marsh, 

 the specimens are quite pale, and I have only seen one dark specimen 

 from there. It is obvious that neither the weeding out of birds, nor 

 moisture can have been the cause here, otherwise one would expect a 

 similar result. 



With regard to H. ahruptaria, in Dulwich, I have not come across 

 melanic specimens, but I believe in North London they are fairly 

 common. This species has been established in London for many 

 years, and is one of the best examples quoted in connection with 

 " protective " resemblance — so like a splinter of wood on a fence or 

 tree trunk. Why then the necessity to depart from the type form to 

 a darker, especially as London is less smoky than it was ten or twenty 

 years ago ? I do not believe that attacks by birds have anything to do 

 with these colour variations. If birds search for insects their eyes are 

 sharp enough to see all, pale or dark specimens, and no weeding out 

 goes on. No doubt melanism is brought about in various ways, and I 

 am strongly of opinion that inbreeding is one of the causes, and it 

 appears to me that large towns would provide the opportunity, whei'e 



