THE LOWER SANDGATE EOAD. 9 



there are two or three worth hunting for. Of 

 Tapinostola Bondii you may take as many as you 

 want ; the larvae have been found feeding up in the 

 stems of Festuca antndinacea, a grass which is very 

 abundant here. On the stunted poplars " once upon 

 a time " Dr. Knaggs found larvae of the Anchorite 

 (Clostera anachoreta) which duly produced imagos, 

 the ancestors of most of the specimens now in 

 English cabinets. 1 have myself reared C. curtula 

 and C. reclusa from caterpillars off these trees. 

 Notodonta dictcea and N. ziczac, two of the Prominent 

 Moths, are still to be found ; the larvae of the Puss 

 Moth (Dicranura vinula) may be taken by scores, 

 and D. lifida has occurred here. The Satin Moth 

 (Liparis salicis) and the Brown Tail (L. chrysorrhcea), 

 the Poplar and Privet Hawks abound, and an occa- 

 sional Death's Head turns up, feeding either on the 

 potatoes in the cultivated patches or on the Garden 

 Tea-tree which surrounds them. Apropos of this in- 

 sect let me tell you a tale with a moral. A friend of 

 mine out in a boat one evening caught a fine speci- 

 men which had settled on the sail. He brought it 

 home and allowed it to wander about the room till 

 after tea, when he purposed to kill it. Accordingly 

 we had a chase after it until it settled on my arm as 

 if appealing to me for protection, little thinking that 

 I too had a vacant space in my cabinet labelled 

 A. atropos. On my attempting to seize it, it uttered 

 its well known "shriek," which sounded so like a 

 piteous appeal for life that my friend's tender feel- 

 ings overcame his entomological desires, and he 

 declared at once it should not be put to death. So 

 he put it under a glass shade, where in a few days 



