912 CORRESPONDENCE. 
BemBIDIuM ADUSTUM, Schaum, (RUPESTRE, Dawson,) IN THE MIDLANDS. 
—It is with great pleasure that I record the capture of this extremely rare 
beetle, which I have found in some numbers on a very small spot of 
ground in the neighbourhood of Tewkesbury. Until re-discovered by 
myself, only a very few indigenous examples were known. These were 
originally in the Stephensian cabinet; were said to have been found at 
Swansea, and upon them Dawson founded his description of B. rupestre, 
with which the Tewkesbury beetle perfectly agrees. Mr. H. C. Rye, to 
whom I sent specimens, endorses my insect as adustum, and warmly 
congratulates me on its capture —W. G. Buaton, Green Lane, near 
Birmingham, 22nd July, 1879. 
Reawrer sHowine THE Dares during the last fifteen years on which 
Wheat-ears were first seen in the neighbourhood of Kettering :— 
Rainfall to 30th June 
each year. 
1865, June 5th ate ae =o 10°50 inches. 
1866, ,, 12th oP “i ae 10:31 ae 
1867, .. 9th ve a 5 10'Oi-4e. 
1868, May 30th 3¢ se 5. PG liye aye 
1869, June 9th aie ee ric LO ee 
LSTOFy yt ule a ee ae O'ab. fuse 
1871, ,, 16th ap ie ae 829 ee 
1872 ess Lown Sie aie os 14:99" 
1873, ,, 14th i : ss Orit rae 
1874, ,, 2nd ss ae: re co a0 eas 
TOP Ds) 55) Aol se at a: SD are 
1876, ,, 16th ia a a 2-30 ees 
1877, ,, 16th ee ae <6 111650 5s 
1878, ,, llth ae a5 ae 1283 ee 
1879, July Ist Ap aN ae 1555 
JoHN WALLIS. 
Instinct on Rrason?—The instinct by which quadrupeds will some- 
times find their way is quite as difficult to understand as that which 
teaches the bird to find his path through the air. When we removed 
from Coventry to our Stoke cottage, on the 7th May, our town cat 
accompanied the family. She travelled inside the brougham in a close 
hamper, and could see nothing beyond her basket. On her first arrival 
at Stoke, puss looked wildly about her and could not understand the 
change; but after a full inspection of the premises from the cellar to the 
roof, and the surroundings of the house, she settled down, apparently 
delighted with the pleasures of country life, and spent a fortnight very 
happily. Then suddenly she took it into her head to re-visit her friends 
in Priory Row, where, on my arrival on the 23rd, I found her, having 
trotted two miles by field or road she never could have seen, and about 
three-quarters of a mile of it through the intricate streets of Coventry. 
The sight of birds has been proved to be excessively long and keen, and 
it seems to be proved that the vultures and other birds of prey discover 
their food by sight, and not at all by scent; but the cat, which creeps 
along the ground, cannot get a bird’s-eye view from any great height. 
How she can take her bearings and steer across an unknown country is 
one of the mysteries of instinct.—Jonn Guuson, Coventry. 
[We should be glad to be favoured with any good, unpublished 
instances of remarkable sagacity or ‘“ instinct” on the part of animals, 
which may come within the knowledge of any of our readers.— 
Eps. M.N.J 
