38 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



Unfortunately, with the glorious uncertainty of our British climate, 

 the weather turned much colder and clearer just as I left London, and 

 the four nights I spent at Hereford were all more or less (usually more) 

 frosty, with a bright moon and cloudless sky. Leaving London on 

 Monday morning, 31st March, almost losing my train through my 

 laudable efforts to avoid delaying the basket of the Record Exchange 

 Club, which I received by post when packing, and just managed to 

 start again on its rounds, I reached Hereford about 3.0 p.m., a most 

 glorious sunny cloudless sky overhead, but with a clear atmosphere and 

 cold wind which augured badly for our sport, and, after unpacking 

 those few impedimenta without which the collecting lepidopterist cannot 

 travel, I hastened to the rendezvous to meet a well-known entomologist 

 resident in that neighbourhood, to whose courtesy and intimate ac- 

 quaintance with the locality I am indebted for much of my knowledge. 

 As the train left us at our destination rather too early to commence 

 working the sallows we spent the hour or so before dusk in looking 

 round, my friend most kindly pointing out the numerous features of 

 interest which the district presents to the entomologist. During this 

 cursory inspection we succeeded in finding a few BrepJios fwflia at rest 

 upon the aspen poplar {Popidiis tremula), including one pair taken in 

 ccp. The cold east wind evidently prevented notiia from indulging in 

 its usual wild flight, and all our efforts in shaking the taller aspens only 

 succeeded in dislodging one more that evening, although during the 

 bright sunshine of the following morning I managed to shake down a 

 few more, of which after an exciting chase fully half escaped. Although 

 the wood was plentifully dotted with birch trees {Betiila alba) I did not 

 see a single B. partlienias during the next morning which I spent there, 

 although the previous Saturday, in the London district, I had found it 

 well on the wing. On our way back we picked up an odd Cy-natopliorn 

 flavicornis, also resting on the twigs of the lower aspens, and by trunk 

 searching found a few Lobophora carpinata at rest, with Diurncea fagella, 

 both light and dark forms common as usual. As it was now rapidly 

 getting darker we made our way back to the inn, where, after a little 

 light refreshment, we got our lanterns and started. 



I may here mention that in the woods we were then working, sallows 

 were far from plentiful and scattered far apart, which, while adding 

 considerably to the miles walked, yet renders each sallow more remune- 

 rative and consequently better worth visiting. It is a great mistake to 

 select as working ground spots in which too many sallows occur, 

 especially where some of these are in inaccessible spots, as the moths, 

 by some strange instinct, always seem to prefer the more inaccessible 

 trees. Although so clear a night, I was pleasantly surprised at the 

 sport we met with, Pachnobia leiicographa turning up in what I regarded 

 as a satisfactory manner, T. miniosa being rather more scarce. I need 

 hardly say that gothica, stabilis, and criida gave abundant proof of their 

 presence, while instabilis, viunda, and gracilis were decidedly scarce, the 

 ground being, I think, not favourable for the last species ; which also 

 is, in that locality, usually the last to emerge and may not have been 

 fully out. Of miinda I obtained one very nice variety, and was also 

 able to secure a couple of populdi. In working the sallows we found 

 the female blossom just as attractive to the moths as the male, which is 

 a fact, I think, not generally allowed ; but the uncertainty doubtless 



