TtlK ENTOMOLOGIST. 109 



retreats by the busy beaks of the assiduous parents, and 

 transferred to the gaping beaks of the ever-expectant little 

 ones. Gilbert White and others have counted the number of 

 times in an hour that these little benefactors have returned to 

 their nest laden with larvae. We may assist the birds in this 

 labour of love to man by pouring coal-tar on the ground at a 

 little distance from the trunk, or by painting the trunk itself 

 with anything sticky, — a mixture of Stockholm tar and cart- 

 grease in equal quantities has been found to answer best. 

 The larvae may be beaten down or shaken down, and, 

 instinctively returning to the trunk as if drawn by a magnet, 

 they are arrested on their way upwards by the mixtui'e, which 

 is always fatal to them, clogging their spiracles and inducing 

 speedy death. When the larvae are full fed they sponta- 

 neously descend the trees in order to turn to chrysalids in the 

 earth about their roots. By digging and loosening this earth 

 the chrysalids are again exposed to the birds, and also to the 

 mice, which are prompt to avail themselves of the opportu- 

 nity. On the approach of winter the female moths, which are 

 queer spider-like creatures without wings, come out of the 

 chrysalids, and mount the trunks for the purpose of laying 

 their eggs. The same remedy of a sticky mixture, applied as 

 already recommended, will effectually arrest their upward 

 progress. 



New Names for Eurojieaii Butterjlies. — What are we 

 coming to, when a man of Mr. Kirby's reputation devotes an 

 entire page of the Ent. Soc. Proceedings to an attempt to 

 upset the name of our long-established favourite Colias Hj/ale, 

 with nothing to offer in its stead but the ridiculously inap- 

 propriate title of Sareptensis? This is reducing us to the dry 

 bones of Science with a vengeance. Wliat are names worth 

 but as means of recording and identifying the objects they 

 represent? If a name conveys no object to the mind it is 

 useless. Do the entomologists of the present day really think 

 they are advancing the cause of true science by this incessant 

 and uncalled-for change of well-established names? rendering 

 all previous records of the species unintelligible to a future 

 generation without going back upon the old synonymy, and 

 learning to know the insect by two or three names instead of 

 one. It is pure pedantry, instead of science, this hobby of 

 the closet naturalists : making the names of more consequence 



