FIRST APPEARANCES OE BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 207 



feeding till the end of September. We obtained a single larva 

 of Acronycta alni at Canford. The only larva approaching 

 abundance was Dicranura furcula, of which we obtained seven 

 in September in the Poole District. One Colias edusa only 

 came under my notice. My time was much curtailed this 

 year. I only did night work in Cambridgeshire for 10 days 

 in the middle of July, when both light and sugar paid well. 

 I was unable to do any night work in Dorsetshire except in 

 the late autumn, when nothing noteworthy was taken, 

 although arbutus blossom paid well. Camptogramma fluviata 

 occurred at Poole on 8th Nov., 1912. 



General Notes. 



Poole. — Portuguese man-of-war {Physalia utriculus) found 

 washed up on Sandbanks, Poole Harbour, in March. (G. R. P.) 



Chickerell. — A fine sun-pillar was seen on May 3rd about 

 7.30 p.m., lasting a quarter of an hour or more. It was 

 of about the diameter of the sun, and extended vertically 

 upwards to a height of 20° or 25°, becoming fainter near the 

 top. The light of it was of a pale, yellowish colour. There 

 were a few clouds on the actual horizon, so that the sunset 

 was not visible, and the pillar emerged above them. It 

 differed from ordinary bright rays in being the same breadth 

 all the way up, and not in the form of a cone. The moon, 

 also, when near the horizon shortly after 11.0 p.m., presented 

 somewhat the same appearance of a vertical pillar above it, 

 but shorter and less definite. Possibly had it been observed 

 when rising, the phenomenon would have been more distinct. 

 (N. M. R.) 



Chard (E. S. R.). — Very wet January, with floods ; deep 

 snow on 18th and 19th, which soon thawed. Very hard frost 

 the beginning of Februarj', 20° frost here, and skating every- 

 where for a week. The past five months, from November, 

 1911, to April, 1912, have been a remarkably wet, unsettled 

 time, and farming operations are in a backward state. On 

 April 17th I saw the eclipse of the sun from mid-day to 



