1»0S ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETF. 107 



light hunting ground. Having discovered that perfect specimens of Catocala were not to be 

 secured by the use of a net, they being so strong of wing and loose in scale, one flutter in the 

 net would leave the thorax naked and ruin the specimen ; so we would examine the tree and 

 discover, if possible , the moth asleep on its bark, place a poison bottle over it, slip a card 

 » ..^between the bottle and the tree, and a few flutters on the smooth glass did it but little injury. 

 But most of them preferred resting upon oak trees, whose bark they resembled so closely 

 that it was impossible to detect all of them. So a switch was rubbed on the tree to start those 

 overlooked, and they were followed uu to the next tree they would alight upon. Then a 

 process of " Stalking " had to be indulged in, as each time they were disturbed they became 

 more wary. This method of collecting in day-light affords an opportunity for studying their 

 habits not obtainable at sugar or light. Their general mode of flight is a rapid, jerking, zig-zag 

 movement, with various degrees of intensity in the different species, which makes it ditticult to 

 follow them with the eye. Some kinds, when disturbed, would alight upon the nearest tree 

 plainly in sight, whilst others would disappear in the distance, and others again would vanish 

 behind the nearest tree. Some would alight higher up every time they were disturbed, soon 

 putting them out of reach, whilst Ohscura would alight at the voot of a tree or even on the 

 ground. Catocala mostly rest with their heads up, but there are species which rest with it 

 down. I have seen them alight head up, then prepare themselves for another rest by turning 

 head downward. Arnica would often move a few inches to one side on the same tree, and I 

 have thus followed them until they had encircled the tree. Catocala are extremely sensitive 

 to changes in the weather. On a tine wai'm day, they may be in profusion ; on the next, in the 

 same locality, with an east wind, there will not be a specimen observable. What became of 

 them or where they hid themselves, I could never learn. One very warm afternoon, I saw 

 Palmofiama flying about the woods and apparently pursuing one another in a sportive mood 

 like butterflie-). They might have been taken with a net by the dozen. 



The species tha'. were most plentiful and that could be depended upon to appear more or less 

 numerously every season were: Retecta, Ohscurco, Relicta with its variety Bianca, Amatni.>:, Con- 

 ciimbens, Unijiuia, Briseis with its v&riety Semirelicta, Meskel, Farta, Ultronia, Ilia and its 

 variety Uxor, Iniiubens and its variety Scintilluns, Cerogama, NecMjamn, Subnata, Piatrix, 

 Pakpogamu and its variety Phalanga, Habilis, Polygama and Arnica, with Parfheno>i Nvbilis. 

 Tni rarer species, that is, such as we never got all that we want of them, indeed some of them 

 taken only in single specimens of their kind were : Epiovc, T'esperata, Insolabilis, Levettei, 

 Cara, Coccinata, Serena, Clintonii. All of these, with the exception of Mesl'ei which was 

 extremely local in its habits, I have taken in the vicinity of Hamilton. I also took a single 

 specimen of Elonymplia at Ridgeway, the only one as yet reported to my knowledge that has 

 been taken in Canada. Mr. James Johnston has recently added Eobinsonii and Nebv.lnsa to 

 the Hamilton list. 



Mr. Angus never associated himself with any of the New York Entomological Societies, 

 and the reason which he gave to me for it was that they usually held their meetings on 

 Sundays which he did not approve of, he having received in his youth a strict, Scottish educa- 

 tion on this subject, which gave him a strong regard for the sacredness of the day So bis 

 extensive information upon entomological subjects seldom got beyond his own i)rivate circle, 

 which might have been different if he had bjen more congenially situated. Mr. Grote speaks 

 of him in the Annual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario for the year 1888, page 

 62 As one of those that were attracted to him for information upon Entomology, at a time 

 when Mr. Grote was the leading authority on North American Noctuidae, and hb must have 

 been impressed with the appearance of the man, as he remarks upon him a^ a tall 

 Scotchman with curious, white and black in bunches, parti-colored hair, very iuteUigent, kindly 

 but reserved. By the time I met him, his hair had become all white, his reserve Avas not 



