92 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



it is by no means of rare occurrence, and may be 

 found on most currant-bushes, and often on hawthorns, 

 &c, around London. The envelope of the eggs is 

 of a chestnut-brown colour. 



A much more singular species occurs in company 

 with the preceding, and abounds on the currant- 

 bushes at Lee. From their resemblance to the form 

 of one of the valves of a mussel-shell, Reaumur 

 named this species en coquille ( Coccus conchiformis, 

 GMELIN). He says, it imposed upon him for several 

 years, as he supposed it to be the cocoon of some 

 minute insect about to go into the pupa state; but he 

 was undeceived by finding them full of eggs. We 

 were more disposed, at first, to look upon them as a 

 subcortical fungus (such as Cucurbitaria Berbemdis, 

 GREV. or Cryptosphceria Pteridis, So WERE.), for, 

 during the winter, when we first observed them, they 

 appeared exactly like a little slip of the bark elevated 

 by the growth of a fungus below it. Then they were 

 so crowded on some branches, that not a hair's breadth 

 of the bark remained uncovered. When, however, 

 we found these minute bark-like scales full of eggs, we 

 were inclined to conjecture that they had been depo- 

 sited by saw-flies cutting into the bark; but this was 

 instantly disproved by removing them, and finding the 

 bark below sound and uncut. Reaumur put the 

 matter beyond dispute by actually hatching the 

 eggs, when insects were produced similar to other 

 cocci. But our species, found on the currant-bush, 

 seems to differ from his of the elm, not in form and 

 colour, but in habit, being gregarious, while his was 

 subsolitary.* 



During the severe frost of 1829-30, we observed 

 several small birds, such as the long-tailed titmouse 

 (Parus caudatus), and the gold-crested wren (Regu- 



* J. R. 



