78 



THJ2 NATUEAUST. 



course of incubation, and placed it 

 carelessly at the foot of a plum tree. 

 To my surprise the bird returned 

 and continued silting. Feeling in- 

 terested in the result, I surrounded 

 the nest with a few of the dead tops, 

 in the hope of screening it from the 

 sight of egg-devouring or carnivo- 

 rous enemies. In the course of 

 about a week young were hatched, 

 but, I am very sorry to say, they 

 fell a prey to thnt wily and indefati- 

 gable, diurnal and nocturnal prow- 

 ler, the half-fed cat. — Geo. Roberts, 

 Lofthouse, Wakefield. 



Stauropus Fagi. — While searching 

 for examples of Cidaria silaceata in 

 Drayton Wood, near Aylesbury, 

 yesterday, I was so fortunate as to 

 find a fine male Stauropus Fagi at rest 

 on a small fir-tree ; it looked as fresh 

 as if ithad justemergedfiom its pupa 

 case. I may also mention that 1 took 

 a female specimen of Notodonta 

 cucullina last May in the same lo- 

 cality. — W. E. Parsons, New-road, 

 Aylesbury, Bucks, June 13th, 18G4. 



Note on the Number of Eggg 



DEPOSITED BY THE GhOST MoTII 



(Hepialus humidi), with eem.auks 

 UPON OUR Friends and its Enemies. 

 — April 27th, picked up a larva 

 of H. humuli in my garden, feeding 

 upon grass root; it changed to 

 pupa April 29th, and appeared as 

 a beautiful variety of H. humuli 



June 5th, having remained in pupa 

 thirty-seven days ; on piercing it with 

 a pin it commenced to deposit its 

 eggs, and in seven minutes deposited 

 four hundred and thirty-eight. I 

 removed it into another box to en- 

 able me to count those already laid, 

 which seemed to cause it to to cease 

 laying ; on looking at it shortly af- 

 terwards it had commenced again, 

 and though it did not lay as quickly 

 as it had done befoie, it continued 

 dropping an egg regularly until it 

 eventually made up the veiy great 

 number of eggs laid to eight 

 hundred and sixty-eight. As this 

 insect feeds principally on cypera- 

 ceous roots, and is an abundant 

 insect everywhere, destroying the 

 roots of the plants it feeds upon, 

 the amount of mischief it does is 

 very great; but what might it not do 

 if it were not kept in check by birds 

 and animals. To the Starling (Stur- 

 ims imlgaris) we are indebted for the 

 most effectual check we have upon 

 the increase of this insect ; they are 

 ever boring into the ground for this 

 and other injurious larvoe, and es- 

 pecially so during April and May, 

 when they have eggs or young; con- 

 suming countless numbers of the 

 larvae and pupoe. Thus on April 

 27th I shot a starling that I might 

 count how many larvae it was flying 

 to its nest with, and in its mouth 

 were four large full fed humuli cater- 

 pillars, and as I had counted the 



