MARCH. 35 



he need not be surprised to find, instead of an early 

 Noctua, a wasted specimen of Depressaria Arenella, 

 ocellana or applana, enjoying the sweets of life with 

 evident satisfaction. 



And this leads me to speak of sugaring, and the 

 processes employed to bring within our reach those noc- 

 turnal wanderers, which, being but seldom seen in the 

 daytime asleep on palings or trunks of trees, but be- 

 taking themselves to the thick underwood, from which 

 they cannot be beaten out, or crawling into tufts of 

 thick grass or herbage at the roots of bushes, or at the 

 stems of trees, and in the herbage of hedge-banks, defy 

 the keenest entomological eye to detect their where- 

 abouts. 



And, first, as to sugaring : it is perfectly evident that 

 moths have peculiar predilections, and that they are 

 guided in their taste by some law from which they do 

 not deviate. I have heard it stated by old collectors 

 that " it is no use sugaring while the apple trees are in 

 blossom, for they are so surfeited by feeding at them 

 that they will not come to sugar." Now if this be the 

 case, which it certainly is, there must be some cause 

 for the occurrence ; for if there were not, we should not 

 see the effect. Now I believe that nearly all the trees 

 or blossoms which prove so attractive to moths during 

 the spring months are almond-scented ; thus, for in- 

 stance, the apple and pear, and the flowers of the 

 syringa or lilac, the latter especially, smell pretty 

 strongly of almonds, while it is well known that the 

 moths will feed upon the berries of the yew, and the 

 flowers of the ivy and sallow, until they become quite 

 intoxicated as it were, and will suffer themselves to be 



