RETURNS OF RAINFALL, ETC., IN DORSET. 197 



Mr. Moule alludes to the migration of the Otter, which the 

 water keeper at Dorchester tells him does not frequent the upper 

 waters of the Frome until about Christmas. 



Mr. E. R. Bankes sends the following note on the season : — 



" 1893 will long be memorable on account of its exceptionally high 

 temperatures, the almost unparallelled duration of ' the great drought,' 

 and the wonderful amount of sunshine recorded. It ojiened with a .spell 

 of severe frost, but this was succeeded by mild weather before the end of 

 January. February was very mild with an almost unpreceilented 

 amount of rain. With March began the very warm and brilliant weather 

 which made the year so remarkable and continued with very few 

 interruptions till about the beginning of October. The last three months 

 were unusually mild with very few frosts, but a considerable rainfall. 

 December l'2th will always be memorable on account of the terrific gale, 

 the most severe and destructive within living memory, tliat swept over 

 the county and did an incalculable amount of damage to houses, buildings 

 of all sorts, ricks, trees, i^-c, almost wrecking a good m;iny of the 

 villages near the coast. It is Avorth mentioning that Christnuas Day 

 and the three following days were so wonderfully mild and sunmierlike 

 that blackbirds, thrushes, and many other birds were in full song all day, 

 while the woodpigeons were cooing loudly— even long befoie it was 

 daylight. From an entomological point of view the year was n'ost 

 disappointing : numbers of good local species of Lepidoptera were either 

 exceedingly scarce or could not be found at all, and an exceptionally 

 large proportion of larvae were stung by ichneumon Hies. No rare or 

 interesting species of butterflies K)r nmths came over to us from the 

 Continent as was the case with several kinds in 1892, but descendants of 

 the " Clouded Yellows " (C. cdttsa) that then visited us were met with 

 in moderate numbers in the autumn. On tiie other hand tlie 'Painted 

 Lady' butterflies (V. card id) that migrated to this country in goodly 

 numbers at the same time had apparently to all intents and puiposes 

 failed to continue their lace, for hardly a single specimen was obser\ed 

 durmg the whole year. The one redeeming feature was the line weatiier, 

 which was all that the collector wished and enabled him to meet with and 

 secure all the species that were not ' considcuous by their absence.' 

 Wasps, aphides, and a small snow-white insect named Alcurodcs brassicK 

 that attacks the cabbages, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts appeared in 

 immense numbers and Mere very troublesome in the gardens." 



Amongst the Birds may be noted — Swanage, ]Marcli 13th, as 

 early for the Wheatear, Corfe Castle, March lotli, as early for 

 tlie Chiff-chaff, Corfe Castle, April Sth, for tlie Cuckoo, the 

 same date as at Wuatcombe last year. Cokfe Castle and 

 Bloxworth, April 3rd, for the Swallow is earlier than any date 

 last year j in fact, the dates for most of the birds show a season of 



