201 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



and Stenopteryx hybridalis swarmed everywhere. One or two Sphinx 

 convolvuli * (the " Convolvulus Hawk-moth ") were seen in our garden 

 at night, but escaped capture. Of the Bymenoptera, the large and 

 formidable-looking Sawflies, Sirex gigas and S. juvenciis, harmless 

 enough to us, but so destructive in their larval stage to timber, were both 

 met with in Purbeck, whilst at Sherford Bridge, some three miles to the 

 north of Wareham, the larvae of the smaller Hemichroa rufa occurred in 

 such truly prodigious numbers that for about the distance of 150 yards 

 or more, out of two rows of very fine alder bushes about 15 to 20 feet 

 high, growing on either side of the stream, almost every single alder 

 bush had been entirely stripped by them of leaves when I visited the 

 spot on September 26th, and hundreds of larvae were still wandering 

 about the bare stems and branches in search of food. Of the Coleoptera, 

 the larvie of Melolontha vulgaris (the Cock-chafer) were exceedingly 

 abundant in grass land in the autumn, and the rooks, finding this out 

 about September, used to move about in flocks from one spot to another, 

 and in certain patches, varying in size, but generally more or less 

 circular and perhaps a couple of yards in diameter, pulled up all the 

 herbage by the roots in order to get at the larvae the more easily, 

 leaving the patches of bare earth covered only by the heaps of uprooted 

 grass plants. I have myself never seen, nor can I hear that others have 

 seen, the grass fields left in such a state before, and a neighbouring 

 farmer, with no great extent of grazing-land, assured me that he had 

 had acres upon acres of grass destroyed in this way by the rooks, which 

 had done far more damage than the larva? would ever have done. This 

 same phenomenon was also observed in other parts of the country, and 

 Lord Walsingham tells me that on parts of his estate at Merton, in Nor- 

 folk, the same effect was produced, only there, curiously enough, the bare 

 patches, instead of being due to the rooks, were caused by the pheasants, 

 which are very numerous, in their search for the cock-chafer larvae." 



* The occurrence of the larva of S. convolvuli in this country has been 

 very rarely recorded, so that the finding of two larvae in the allotment 

 grounds of Chickerell is of great interest. Convolvulus arvensis grows 

 there amongst the potatoes, &c., in great profusion, so that the 

 larvae would not lack food. One of these larvae was brought to me 

 on September 29th, and buried itself to turn to a pupa on October 1st, 

 the other arriving a few days later. I regret to say that neither of them 

 emerged. The moths are not uncommon, but are almost always, it is 

 believed, immigrants from abroad. I have never seen a larva before, 

 though I generally have one or two of the moths brought to me every 

 year. A few other larvae were recorded from Cornwall, &c., about the 

 same date. (N, M. K.) 



