NOTES ON COLLECTING. 291 



Wimbledon ; C. anatipennella, plentifully on sloe and hawthorn, at 

 Ealing, and one on sallow at Barnes ; C. caesin'titiella, on rushes, at 

 Wimbledon, Barnes, and Richmond; (.'. an/cutula, on yarrow, at 

 Chiswiek and Barnes; and lastly, C. larijienndla, at Chiswick, in 

 1902, in both iniaginal and larval states. I feel sure that these 25 

 species do not include all that occur in the district. ( 'olcophora oliva- 

 cetila and siccifdliella, besides others, are surely inhabitants. — Ibid. 



Abundance of Gracilaria syringella. — One of the features of 

 this season just round here is the unusual abundance of (Tvocilaria 

 .v/rin(/(>lla in the larval state. Earlier in the year the imagines were 

 exceptionally numerous, and the larvae of the first brood quite dis- 

 figured the lilac bushes. The second brood appears still more 

 numerous, and has attacked the privet hedges, in the same manner as 

 the lilacs, where these have not been closely cut. Even the ash-trees 

 have not escaped their ravages. The greater proportion of the larvae 

 appear to content themselves with mining the leaves. It is only here 

 and there that a rolled leaf is visible. — Ibid. [The larvae of both 

 broods were equally abundant both on lilac and privet, in the south- 

 east district of London. — Ed.] 



A VISIT TO Selborne. — My friend. Rev. C. 0. S. Hatton, having 

 temporary charge of the parish of Shalden, near Alton (Hants), kindly 

 asked me to stay a couple of days with him so that we might avail 

 ourselves of the opportunity of visiting the neighbouring parish of 

 Selborne. Accordingly I reached Shalden on Tuesday night, 

 September 23rd, and on the following morning we started on foot for 

 Alton, three miles. On our way we captured two Pyranieis canliii in 

 very fair condition, regaling themselves on flowers of Centaiirea 

 scabiosa. On arriving at Alton, we hired a conveyance, which took us 

 four miles along a rather flat uninteresting road to Selborne, which we 

 reached at 11.30 a.m. A very worn specimen of I'icris rapae, and a 

 similar representative of P. braaxicav (the latter flying weakly across 

 the Plestor) were the only imagines seen in the village itself. We 

 next visited the church, inside which is a mural tablet in memory of 

 Gilbert White, the world-renowned author of The Natural Hiatory of 

 Selborne, who was born in that village in 1720. There also he died in 

 1793, having lived there the greater part of his life, although he was 

 never vicar of the parish. At his own desire, no monument was 

 erected to him in the churchyard, ind nought but a tiny headstone, 

 with the initials G.W. and the date of his death, marks the resting- 

 place of this most accurate observer and recorder of beasts, birds and 

 insects. Before leaving the churchyard we measured accurately (at 

 a distance of 5ft. from the ground) the magnificent yew-tree which it 

 contains, and found the girth to be 25ft. Gin. Gilbert White mentions 

 this tree in his Antiqttities of Selborne, where he says — " It seems to 

 have seen several centuries, and is probably coeval with the church, 

 and, therefore, may be deemed an antiquity. The body is short, squat 

 and thick, and measures 23ft. in girth, supporting a head of suitable 

 extent to its bulk. This is a male tree, w-hicb, in the spring, sheds 

 clouds of dust, and fills the atmosphere around with farina." Depart- 

 ing from the church we noticed signs of insect ravages on some 

 nasturtium plants in the village, and on examination we found the 

 culprits to be a single larva of P. rapae, and at least a hundred of /'. 

 brassicae, of these latter we each took about fifty, more with the idea 



