BOARMIDAL—HIBERNIA. 235 



much more vigorously at a later hour, since it has been seen, 

 along with the last species, to migrate in multitudes. The 

 female is always rather secret in its habits, but may be found, 

 not commonly, in the chinks and interstices of the bark of 

 trees near the ground, or at night sitting upon twigs. Of 

 the tenacity of life and endurance of cold in this insect a 

 curious instance is furnished by Sir Thomas Moncrieffe, 

 " About 11 A.M. on the 6th of December 1871 I was crossing 

 the ice which covered a pretty large pool of water to the 

 depth of three or four inches. The white hoar frost lay all 

 over, and so heavily had it fallen that the leaves and small 

 branches which lay on the surface looked half an inch thick. 

 The trees all around were covered with it, and the whole 

 scene was one of bitter cold mid-winter. A form on the ice 

 attracted my attention, from its shape looking like a large 

 white butterfly. I removed the hoar frost, and there, with 

 outstretched wings, lay a specimen of H. defuliaria. It ap- 

 peared to be dead, and, although the frost lay thickly upon it, 

 it was not adhering to the ice on which it lay. I took it up 

 and placed it on a shelf in the wooden house in which our 

 curling-stones are kept. On entering some hours afterwards, 

 I found my friend on the window, quite lively. Now, this 

 insect must have been a good many hours in the position in 

 which I found it, as the hoar-frost must have fallen at latest 

 about day-break, and most probably some hours earlier." 



Its larva is looked upon abroad as one of the most destruc- 

 tive enemies of the fruit trees, and the same has been asserted 

 of it in this country, but in my own experience it is very far 

 more plentiful and destructive in those woods in which the 

 trees are scattered, and the undergrowth is regularly kept 

 down by being cut every ten or fifteen years. In these, 

 every tree and every bush is sometimes defoliated, as already 

 described. Abundant in woods, and present wherever there 

 are trees, over the whole of England and Wales ; but far less 

 plentiful in Scotland, though found in Berwickshire, Eox- 

 burghshire, and the Tweed and Solway districts generally, 



