122 THE ENTOMOLOGIsi. 
Notrs oN THE Earty Morus.—January 2nd. On reading the news 
papers I find a very severe winter predicted by Professor Walter H. Smith, 
“the best-known meteorologist in Canada.” I[ am sceptical, as the winter 
ought to be nearly over, and we have fine weather. (‘he forecast turned 
out to be too correct.) 4th. Hard frost. Sth. Thaw. 7th. Heavy fall 
of snow; general; about three inches in the streets, which is unusual for 
Chester. 8th. Continued heavy snow showers; seen nothing like it here 
in the last fourteen years. 9th. Intense frost. 12th. Thaw, with rain. 
22nd. Up to this date we have had intense frosts, snowstorms, and partial 
_thaws; snow still lying outside the city. 23rd. Snow all gone; N.W.; 
spring-like. February 3rd. Still open weather; young nettles and docks 
strong and abundant; these come in useful for many of my hybernating 
larvee. 5th. Eaton Park; fine; N.W.; picked two male Phigalia pedaria 
(pilosaria) off oaks growing by the sides of the drive; a woodman told me 
there were lots of them in the woods, and had been during the last week ; 
snowdrops in bloom. 6th. Saw Hybernia rupicapraria near Chester. 
13th. Went for the day to Delamere Forest; so far we have had a fine, 
mild February ; a lovely morning. Left the train at Delamere station, and 
for the rest of the day had the exclusive society of moths, magpies, jays, 
and long-tailed tits. Took only one P. pedaria, a male, very pale, light 
grey, with the “ four waved transverse bars” on the upper wing, and two 
on the lower wing, clearly marked out in dark brown,—one of the finest 
forms of the insect I possess. No Nyssta hispidaria ; they are evidently not 
out. Found eggs of Orgyia antiqua on an oak trunk. Came across a very 
small Noctua caterpillar hybernating in a doubled up bilberry leaf: head, 
body, and under side, dirty grey, liberally blotched with brick-red, which 
gives the caterpillar a brick-red appearance. ‘The leaf had been netted in 
eating, the delicate veins being left like a skeleton leaf. I should say the 
egg had been deposited on the leaf by the parent moth, which was, probably, 
Calocampa solidaginis (see notes by Mr. Day, Entom. xxiv. 301). I tried 
digging for pupe at the roots of trees, but it was a complete failure. From 
oak trunks (1 took all my moths from the trunks of trees or palings) I 
secured quite a study of Hybernia leucophearia. Where it occurs, this 
moth is, I believe, usually abundant; but it appears to be more local than 
the other Hyberniide. From the ‘ District Entomological List,’ by Mr. A. 
O. Walker, I find it marked for “ Prenton, Hastham, and Patrick (near 
Bromborough Mills) Woods; scarce at Ness and Puddington; Delamere, 
common.” Personally, 1 have only found it, in this district, in Delamere 
Forest. There are three forms, of which the following is a description :— 
First, or type form.—F ore wing brown; a clearly defined central grey bar, 
widest on the costal margin, on which, within the bar, is seated a constant 
median dark brown spot; the bar narrows to the inner margin, on which is 
sometimes seated, within the bar, another median dark brown spot. ‘This 
bar is bounded by two dark brown lines: the first is near the base of the 
wing, and bent towards the hind margin; the second is beyoud the centre 
of the wing, waved, and forms two lobes pointing towards the hind margin. 
Beyond this central grey bar there is a narrow, less defined waved band, 
situated near the hind margin. ‘The fringe is grey, with a thin dark brown 
interior boundary line of minute crescents. ‘The dark brown wing-rays are 
carried into the fringe. The lower wing is pale grey, with fringes of the 
same shade, bounded by a thin dark brown irregular and interior line; the 
dark brown wing-rays are continued into the tringe. From the imterior 
