Insects. 7449 



Gurney writes (Zool. 3576), " In a bushy plant of heath, growing in a 

 garden near Norwich, were found two nests of the common greenfinch, 

 which not only were completely interwoven at the adjoining sides, but 

 were built on one common platform, a foundation of fibrous roots and 

 moss. Both nests were complete, except that one of them was 

 deficient in interior lining. When found I understand there was one 

 egg in each." 



Eggs, 4, 5. White, with a tinge of blue, speckled at the larger end 

 with light orange-brown. 



Edward Newman. 

 (To be continued.) 



Occurrence of Lylhria purpuraria in Britain. — I liave just been over to Burgb- 

 field, and, after a good search through Mr. Wailes's magnificent library, am able to 

 inform you of the capture of a Geometra new to (or rather renewed to) the British list, 

 VIZ., Lythria purpuraria, B'tlb. -. two specimens, males, of this conspicuous insect were 

 beaten out of broom, on the 18th of June, " not far from the city of Perth," by Mr. 

 D. P. Morrison, of Pellon, near here. One is at present in my possession ; the other 

 graces the cabinet of a friend of Mr. Morrison's. I see Stephens records it, on the 

 strength of a single specimen, in his genus Aspilates : it is figured in Hiibner (Geo. 38), 

 Freyer (Geo. 60), and others : the former is considered the best by Guenee. — V. R. 

 Perkins; Neioeastle-on-Tyne, February 2.3, 1861. 



Close of the Labours of a Colony of Hornets.— The following remarks have reference 

 to the colony of Vespa crabro, some particulars relating to which were given in my paper 

 on " Vespidffi " (Zool. 7261). The nest, with the insects belonging to it, was, as there 

 Slated, removed on the 7th of September from its original situation in the head of a 

 felled tree to the interior of a glazed box, and conveyed to a room some two miles 

 distant from the place of capture, where the labours of the colony were resumed and 

 carried on during the remainder of the season. The insects continued to work with 

 great perseverance till the 9th of November, although their numbers had been gradually 

 ftilling oflf for some few weeks previously. On the above day I captured eighteen workers 

 and a couple of young queens, for the purpose of supplying Mr. Westwood with speci- 

 mens, that gentleman having expressed a wish for some from which to prepare the 

 sting and other parts, in illusiralion of some remarks upon their organization he was 

 about to submit to the members of the Ashmolean Society at one of their meetings. 

 The mode of capture was as follows. A bit of rag was bound round one end of a piece 

 of wire and introduced through an aperture in the box ; this was brought close to the 

 individual marked out for capture, who thereupon immediately seized the rag with its 

 mandibles, and to which a hearty shake or two, or a squeeze against the side or bottom 

 of the box, by way of provocation, caused the creature to adhere so firmly, and with so 

 determined a grasp, that there was no danger of its quitting its hold on being with- 

 drawn from the box, nor while it was being passed from thence and placed inside the 

 mouth of a bottle, nor was it without extreme difficulty it could at last be separated 

 from its supposed enemy. This applies only to workers ; in the capture of young queens 

 VOL. XIX. X 



