FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, EtC. 263 



Serpents," in which work (pp. 206-213) tne author gives his 

 reasons for considering the Small Red Viper specifically distinct 

 from the adder (E. R. B.). 



PLAGUE OF GOOSEBERRY SAWFLY. In spite of the prodigious 

 numbers of this Sawfly (Nematus grossularicz) that were collected, 

 in the egg and larval states, on my gooseberry and currant 

 bushes in the preceding year, and destroyed (see Proc. Dors. 

 N.H. and A.F.C., XXVI. , 269), we suffered from an equally severe 

 plague of it on the same bushes in 1905. Eggs and larvae were 

 again continually collected by the thousand throughout May, 

 June, July, and August in an attempt, fortunately successful, to 

 save the crops of fruit, and in the hope that determined annual 

 onslaughts on this destructive pest would end either in its 

 extermination, or at least in its being reduced almost to the 

 vanishing point (E. R. B.). 



HUMBLE BEE seen March 29 (N. M. R.). 



SCARCITY OF LEPIDOPTERA. In spite of the weather 

 conditions being eminently suitable for insect-collecting, the 

 year 1905 proved, in the Isle of Purbeck and neighbouring 

 district, very disappointing as regards both Macro 

 and Micro Lepidoptera, which were, in general, decidedly 

 scarce, nearly all the better-class species that were especially 

 worked for being either not met with at all, or only found in 

 solitary individuals. On the whole, however, the season yielded 

 rather better results than its predecessor, though this, alas ! is 

 but faint praise, and it is clear that, even under favourable 

 conditions, it will be several years before Lepidoptera have 

 recovered from the effects of the wholesale destruction caused in 

 their ranks by the disastrous weather of 1903. But, however 

 bad the season, some few species are sure to appear in unwonted 

 numbers, and many valuable observations may be made. 

 Fortune by no means entirely deserted me in 1905, and my 

 captures included several of peculiar interest, which either have 

 been, or will be, chronicled elsewhere ; the most noteworthy of 

 these was that of a lovely male example, taken whilst I was out 

 partridge-shooting near Corfe Castle on September 6, of Sterrha 



