INSECT VARIETY. 115 



The Rev. Joseph Greene informs us that on the 8th o£ 

 Deeemberj when out on one of his memorable autumnal diggings 

 for ixipse in Buckinghamshire, he came to a beech-tree on a high 

 bank, the roots of which formed an arch about a foot in height, 

 and faced the north, the opening being quite exposed to rain, 

 snow, &c. ; and that, as he was on the point of inserting a 

 trowel into the cavity, he heard a faint hissing noise, and to his 

 surprise he found, in searching for heterocerous pupae, he had 

 startled a colony of Peacock Butterflies, wintei-ing there with 

 shut wings. He tells us : — " Two were attached to the concave 

 part of the arch, the third was on the ground, and the noise I 

 heard pi'oceedod from it ; " and adds, '' The noise resembled that 

 made by blowing slowly, with moderate force, through the closed 

 teeth; and, while making it, the wings were slowly depressed 

 and elevated." Apparently doubting the evidence of his senses, 

 Mr. Greene pushed off another of these insects, " which imme- 

 diately commenced the same movement of the wings, accom- 

 panied by a similar noise. ■'^ That it was the testy temperament 

 of the performers that thus sought vent, as spoilt children cry 

 when awaking from sleep, he next afforded an ingenious proof. 

 Pointing the trowel at one of the performers that had expended 

 its spite, and closed its wings again to slumber, he saw it im- 

 mediately turn towards it, and recommence the noise and motion 

 with renewed vigour ; and he noted that, whenever this experi- 

 ment was repeated, the same querulous manifestation ensued. 



The late Mr. Hewitson, w^hose collection of butterflies 

 was widely known, writing on the 38th of January upon 

 the conduct of a Peacock Butterfly that had been hybernating 

 since the first hoar frosts (we presume on the ceiling or wall 

 of his sitting-room at Weybridge), says: — '^ They had been 

 cleaning my room, and had driven it from its winter quarters. 

 I had handled it rather roughly, which it resented by spreading 

 out its ivings horizontally to their fullest extent, and rubbing 

 them rapidly together : it produced a distinct sound, like the 

 friction of sand-paper. This it continued to repeat for some 

 time, and seemed greatly exasperated.'''' The Camberwell Beauty 

 has been seen behaving in a similar fashion. "In 1872,^^ says 

 Mr. A. H. Jones, " a female Vanessa Antiopa came into my 

 possession, in a hybernating condition, and in that state she 

 I 'I 



