62 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



hatched : I could not tell the species with certainty, but 

 think they were of the Liparis family. The country being 

 low-lying and flat, poplars and willows are very numerous, 

 and every tree had several batches of Liparis dispar, Salicis, 

 and others I did not know, upon it; there were also abundant 

 indications of the Cerura family and of the goat-moth. Small 

 birds seemed very scarce, and I had an opportunity of learn- 

 ing one cause of this : there are societies of bird-catchers, 

 and I was very much amused one Sunday to see a party of 

 them dressed up in fantastic garbs, similar to what we see in 

 our own country 'peace-egging' at Easter; they had a fife 

 and drum, and one carried a wicker-cage with a wood-owl 

 confined in it; others with bird-lime sticks, four or five feet 

 long : they go out into the fields, and set the sticks around 

 the cage ; 1 suppose the small birds, attracted by seeing 

 their enemy fluttering in the cage, come and are caught. The 

 party I saw had a lot of little birds : tomtits, robins, wrens, &c. 

 After their sport they go round to the yjublic-houses, sing a 

 chorus, have a drink, and away to the next house ; fife and 

 drum going all the time. The weather was very unfavourable 

 for collecting ; it rained most of the lime. The only imagos 

 I saw were four or five Catocala Nupta on the trees, and one 

 specimen of Atropos on a garden-fence. Larvae of Papilio 

 Machaon were common on the carrot; there seemed to be 

 two varieties, differently marked both in the larvae and 

 pupae." It is probable the destruction of insectivorous birds 

 is, to some extent, the cause of the wonderful profusion 

 of insects which Mr. Johnson describes, and which is so 

 different to anything we see in England ; but still 1 think 

 there must also be climatic causes at work, for if it is worth 

 while to make such elaborate arrangements for the capture of 

 the birds, they may be assumed to exist in no inconsiderable 

 numbers ; but how anyone can find it profitable to delude 

 and slaughter a miserable little tomtit for the sake of food, 

 when a pound of Australian mutton can be had for sixpence, 

 passes my comprehension. — Eduin Birchall ; February 18, 

 1872. 



Lance of PlrylloperiJta horticola. — Will you kindly name 

 the enclosed grubs } They are to be found in myriads just 

 under the surface of my croquet-lawn, and confine their 

 mischievous doings to the sloping sides which have been 

 raised to prevent the balls going out of bounds: the turf is 



