66 [August, 



neither frost nor water can kill, the curlew and plover, which are so fond oj 

 mountains in hard winters, can. These plovers inliabit the sea-marshes, but wher 

 frost locks their food there their instinct teaches them to look for it in a similai 

 place, which thej find on mountains ; and there, when frost and water miss th( 

 moth-grub, they will work their beaks into the rushes and grassy tufts, and devoui 

 myriads of them in a few weeks. Now, the winter of 1882 was mild, with the 

 exception of two or three days' frost, and left the grubs all alive and kept the birds 

 in their marshes as well. The summer of 1883 produced them all alive. Thej 

 again fostered in their usual way, and were very numerous. Last winter was mild, 

 and this good summer produces the myriads of caters as a result of two mild winters." 



Action of Ci^anide of Potassium on colour. — The recent notice in the Magazine 

 of the action of cyanide of potassium on a butterfly reminds me that I have noticed 

 the directly opposite effect. In June, 1880, I was at Zermatt, and filled all mj 

 boxes the day but one before leaving, but, having a tin-killing box with a perforated 

 division in it (I always use saturated solution of cyanide) I put my next day'f 

 captures between papers in the top part, but, unfortunately, did not remove the 

 cotton -wool from beneath, which was soaked in the cyanide. I was unable to sei 

 these for four or five months, and when I took them in hand found that they wer( 

 all bleached. LyccBna Rylas and Damon were changed into the palest brown or buff 

 Satyrus Alcyone and Actcsa v. cordttht, S , had all the colour taken out of them, ai 

 well as hyperanthus and several others, so much so, that if I had not known wha 

 insects were in the box they would have been totally unrecognisable, as they war 

 all thoroughly bleached and rendered more or less ti-ansparent. — George T. Bazeb 

 9, Augustus Eoad, Birmingham t July, 1884. 



Note respecting Argynnis Jainadeva and A. Adippe. — In a small series of but 

 terflies from the N. W. Himalayas recently presented to the Museum, I found, 

 male example of Argynnis Jainadeva so closely resembling A. Adippe, $ , both i: 

 its ground-colour and in the size and arrangement of its markings, that I was 8: 

 first convinced that Mr. Moore must, as some Lepidopterists assert, have erred i'| 

 separating it from the European species : upon placing it with our series of A 

 Adippe I was, to my surprise, immediately convinced of its total distinctness. 



Mr. Eiwes has frequently urged upon me the importance, in his opinion, of tbt 

 expanded fusiform patches upon the median branches in the males of many specie 

 of Argynnis, as probably constant and therefore valuable characters for the detei 

 nation of otherwise nearly allied forms ; in this opinion I have no doubt he is rigl 

 and therefore I do not hesitate to regard Argynnis Adippe (the male of which 

 two such patches upon the pi'imaries) as perfectly distinct from A. Jainadeva, 

 wliich these patches have not been developed. — A. Gr. Butler, British Museui 

 July, 18ai.. 



Note cm Vanessa cardui. — With regard to the note in last month's Ent. Mil 

 Mag. (p. 34), I may say that this species appears to be most unusually abundant oj 

 the Continent this year. I recently made a short excursion, chiefly in Save, 

 Butterflies did not appear to be so common as they usually are in alpine district 

 But V. cardui was evei'ywhere, from 5500 ft. downwards, and, in individuals, pp 



