NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 287 



abundant. Another, ground about a couple of miles away, harboured 

 corydon in four times the numbers, yet the var. was not there. 

 Syngrapha formed an extremely small percentage of the females 

 seen, and is likely to become scarcer, even if not extinct, as I noted 

 a local farmer had started to turn a large flock of sheep out on the 

 ground : a war-time measure, perhaps, but nevertheless disastrous 

 from the collector's point of view. I met two or three other 

 collectors, private and professional, on this ground at the time the 

 corydon emergence was at its height. On September 21st in a field 

 of lucerne I netted two males of Colias edusa and saw another on 

 the 25th. Throughout the season I have only seen one Pyrameis 

 cardui and very few P. atalanta ; and the only skipper to turn up 

 in any quantity was Nisoniades tages. Augiades comma I did not see 

 at all. So against the abundance of some species must be set the 

 scarcity of others. — G. B. Oliver ; High "Wycombe. 



Cerostoma sequella.- — In reference to the notes on this species 

 by Mr. A. Sich (antea, p. 256), I may say that the specimens of this 

 pretty Tineid taken by me have in almost every case been taken 

 off sycamore tree trunks. In 1912 I took about two dozen specimens 

 between the middle of July and early August, and I should say, with 

 possibly two exceptions — one on oak and the other on beech trees 

 adjoining the sycamores— the whole of them were taken off syca- 

 mores, mostly off two or three trees in a restricted locality in this 

 district. Odd specimens that I have taken in other localities in 

 North Yorks. have been where sycamore was prevalent, and I 

 remember clearly in two cases the insects were taken off sycamores. 

 In Merrin's Calendar it states under July, " taken off trunks of 

 sycamore and maple," and under May that the larvae are taken off 

 sycamore, but I have no experience of this. I have certainly never 

 seen it on or about sallow or lime.^T. Ashton Lofthouse ; Linthorpe, 

 Middlesbrough, November 10th, 1917. 



Sale of Mr. Thomas H. Briggs' Collection. — The brothers 

 Briggs, Charles A. and Thomas H., were active collectors of British 

 Lepidoptera more than half a century ago, and both amassed very 

 considerable collections, that of the former being the more extensive 

 of the two. On their change of residence from Leatherhead, where 

 they had resided for many years, to Lynmouth in 1896, Charles, 

 fearful of the effect of the humid atmosphere of his new home, 

 decided to part with his collection, and it was brought under the 

 hammer at Stevens' Eooms in October and November of that year, 

 the sale occupying four days and realising practically £1000. 

 Thomas, however, decided to take the risk of retaining his collection, 

 but does not appear to have added very materially to it in the mean- 

 time ; consequently some of the series were somewhat aged, but in 

 other respects it did not appear to have deteriorated for the extra 

 twenty-one years' keeping, and it was this collection that was sold at 

 Stevens' Auction Eooms on October 16th last. Among the butterflies 

 were many interesting forms, and some of these brought remarkably 

 high prices ; indeed, the good things went well throughout the sale, 

 but the more ordinary lots found buyers with difficulty. For instance, 

 three lots of Noctuas containing some 260 specimens, including one 



