4» LEPIDOPTERA. 



angles, and is thus very conspicuous, though the colour of 

 the wings closely resembles that of the birch bark. I visited 

 the same spot on a wet day, and found that the trees were 

 now entirely deserted, while the moths were perched on dead 

 stems of bracken or burnt sticks of heather at a height of a 

 foot or so from the ground ; but on a third day, visiting the 

 spot in fine weather, I came to the conclusion that only a 

 small proportion were to be found on tree-trunks, while by 

 far the larger number preferred the dead sticks and bracken 

 which still lay in plenty all around." Mr. G. T. Porritt also 

 says : "It sits with its head pressed closely to the wall or 

 bark, its hinder portion stiff and projecting, and bears the 

 most accurate resemblance to the excrement of a grouse that 

 can be imagined ; it is wonderfully deceptive." The fore 

 wings, when so resting, are drawn tightly round the body, 

 and the hinder portion squeezed together and curiously 

 wrinkled, and it really has a very considerable resemblance 

 also to a bit of stick or roll of the thin bark of the birch. At 

 dusk it will come to sugar, heather-bloom, and ragwort- 

 blossom. Its favourite haunts are open woods with plenty 

 of heather and whortleberry, or moors with scattered trees ; 

 but it may sometimes be taken on the open heathery moors 

 far from any trees, and in those seasons in which it is 

 abundant it has even been known to enter gardens. But its 

 haunts are mainly mountainous districts, and so far as I know 

 its most southern locality in these Islands is the hill district 

 of Cannock Chase, South Staffordshire; thence it is found 

 locally in suitable places in North Staffordshire, Derbyshire, 

 Salop, Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland, and 

 has once been taken in Durham. Very local in the South of 

 Scotland, yet found in the Solway, Clyde, and Forth districts ; 

 also in Perthshire, Inverness-shire, Moray and Sutherland- 

 shire, and sometimes abundantly in Aberdeenshire. It 

 cannot well be absent from the mountains of Wales, yet I 

 find no record. Abroad it ranges through Northern Europe 

 and a considerable portion of Central Europe — specimens 



