40 LEPIDOPTERA. 



bluish-green colouring with white freckles and with indica- 

 tions of the lines begins to be assumed. (Adapted from Mr. 

 Buckler's description.) 



May and the beginning of June, on oak, feeding openly 

 upon the leaves, which it closely resembles in colour. 



Pupa stout in proportion ; head and thorax rounded ; wing- 

 covers long ; the tip of the abdomen rather bluntly rounded 

 off, having at the end a small rough knob furnished with two 

 small spikes curving a little outwards toward their extremities ; 

 colour mahogany-brown and very glossy. In a cocoon of 

 fibrous particles spun together and smoothly lined with pale 

 grey silk. (W. Buckler.) 



The moth very often sits during the day upon the trunk of 

 a tree, not confining itself to oak trees, but so greatly favour- 

 ing the Scotch fir that one may calculate almost with certainty 

 upon finding one or more specimens on any day in the late 

 autumn in any wood of these trees in the South of England. 

 In this position it would be very conspicuous but for its close 

 resemblance to a drop of bird's excrement. In the evening 

 it is strongly attracted by ivy-bloom and sugar, and will feed 

 upon ripe blackberries or rotten apples ; in the spring, after 

 hybernation, it may be found, very much more rarely, at 

 sallow-bloom. It pairs and deposits its eggs at this season. 

 Apparently never abundant, but spread over the whole of the 

 South of England to Oxfordshire and the Eastern Counties, 

 though scarce in Cambridgeshire ; rare in Warwickshire, and 

 hardly noticed elsewhere in the Midlands ; much more frequent 

 in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, but scarce in Lancashire, 

 Cheshire, and Yorkshire. Probably widely distributed in 

 Wales, since it occurs, not very rarely, in Carmarthenshire 

 and Pembrokeshire. Pare in the South of Scotland, being 

 only recorded from the districts of the Tweed and Solway ; 

 but also found in the extensive woods of Moray. More 

 widely distributed in Ireland, and recorded from the counties 

 of Dublin, Wicklow, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Sligo, Cavan, 



