X12 [October, 



some of the places most used as a playground. In the last case the indurated sur- 

 face formed a roof over their heads, and through it they bored holes by myriads for 

 their nocturnal raid. Though spreading from many small centres, their general 

 advance was towards the north, until their course was stayed by a long narrow trench 

 on that side. I now come to the one fact which struck me most. There are gas-lamps 

 by the side of the main paths over the field, and I found that the lights attracted the 

 larvsB which moved by night in immense numbers to the lamps, where, in some 

 cases, they accumulated in writhing masses. The chief scene of this voluntary 

 exposure to certain death was near a path which had wattled fences on each side, 

 and under these fences, in close proximity to the lamps, they could have been thrown 

 into heaps with a shovel. I thought that if lanterns had been hung up by night and 

 shallow trenches drawn round them much might have been done to clear the ground, 

 but the experiment was not tried. Thinking it desirable to protect the birds, an 

 order was obtained to that effect ; and this year the ground has been regularly fre- 

 quented by a few rooks, a large colony of starlings, and a larger flock of sparrows. 

 It is worth noting that the industry of the birds has been wonderful, that practically 

 no harm has been done by the larvse, and that, although daily on the watch, I have 

 scarcely seen a single winged specimen. — B. H. Cowpee, 250, Richmond Eoad, 

 Hackney : 28tli August, 1878. 



Neuroptera from France. — The Rev. A. E. Eaton, recently returned from 

 a collecting tour in the Pyrenees, and the mountains of the southern central 

 regions of France, that will be memorable in the annals of European Neuropterology. 

 Starting towards the end of May, nearly a week was spent at Blois (Loire et Cher), 

 *' just to get his hand in " before proceeding to wilder districts. From May 30tli to 

 June 18th he collected in some of the best parts of the Basses Pyrenees, proceeding 

 thence to the Department of the Haute Graronne where he remained till the beginning 

 of July, working the mountain region, afterwards paying a flying visit to Quillan in 

 the Aude. The week comprised between the 15th and 22nd of the last-named month 

 was passed at Toulouse, at which town not much was done, owing to intense heat and 

 slight indisposition; from the 24th to the end of the month was spent in the Cantal, 

 chiefly at the auberge termed " Le Lioran," the district around which has become 

 familiar of late to our French colleagues. To this succeeded a few days' hunting in 

 the rich (but little known) country about Mont Mezene in the Haute Loire, the tour 

 finishing (entomologically), on the 8th August, in the more barren Puy do Dome. 



During this time considerable hardship and some amount of privation had 

 naturally to be endured, but the results have been such as to fully compensate for 

 all. Mr. Eaton has amassed a host of materials for his forthcoming new memoir on 

 the EphemeridcE, many of them obtained by stripping and entering the water with a 

 dredging net. In Tricho2'>tera (and other grouj)s of so-called Neuroptcra) he has 

 brought back vast stores, both pinned and preserved in fluid, to aid me in my work 

 on the European Trichoptera, which, with an amount of self-sacriflce to which it 

 is impossible for me to do justice in woi'ds, he has presented to me, to the extent 

 of probably 1,400 specimens. 



So important a contribution towards a knowledge of French Neuroptera has 

 never before been made, and with its help, that of minor collections made by myself in 

 France at various times, and the as yet too scanty materials collected by our neigh- 



