NOTES AND QUEEIES. 109 



It was a bird of the year, having almost completed its moult. For two or 

 three years I have noticed that the birds on a certain farm in Oxfordshire, 

 not far from where the bird in question was killed, have a good deal of white 

 mixed with the ordinary chestnut of the horseshoe, and the proportion of 

 white seems to be increasing year by year, some birds killed this season 

 showing about an even amount of white and brown. The bird shot the 

 other day is, however, the first I have ever heard of about here with a quite 

 white mark. The first of this variety I ever saw was sent to a stuffer 

 in Banbury in 1879, and was killed, I believe, in Bedfordshire; it was 

 considered a great rarity. In Nottinghamshire, Mr. Whitaker tells me 

 that the birds with white horseshoe are often met with, but the abundance of 

 Partridges in that countv would partly account for this. Mr. Whitaker has 

 skins of some curious dark-coloured birds, also procured there. — Oliver V. 

 Aplin (Bloxham, near Banbury, Oxon). 



Usefulness of the Rook in destroying Caterpillars. — A notable 

 instance of tbe usefulness of the Rook has recently come under my own 

 observation in Sutton Park. During the summer almost every oak tree 

 in the woods is stripped of its leaves by the larva of a lepidopterous insect 

 known to lepidopterists as Hybernia defoUaria, and locally known as the 

 Oak or Autumn Moth. The imago of this insect makes its appearance 

 during the autumn and winter months, from the end of September to the 

 middle of January. The males, in the daytime, may be seen at rest on the 

 trunks of trees, generally in great abundance; but the females, which 

 resemble spiders, are seldom observed, because they effectually hide them- 

 selves in the crevices of the bark and under leaves, and only stir about at 

 night, when they deposit their eggs. In April the young caterpillars hatch 

 and crawl up the branches of the trees, commencing at once to devour the 

 buds as they open. As the leaves expand they grow correspondingly, until 

 they reach the length of a little more than an inch. After a shower of rain 

 or a little wind thousands of these caterpillars, becoming alarmed, let them- 

 selves down by their webs, and remain suspended for hours in mid-air 

 swinging to and fro in the breeze. Everyone going through the woods 

 during the months of May and June experiences the unpleasantness of 

 constantly coming into contact with their webs, and the incessant itching 

 of the hands and face occasioned thereby. Indeed to many persons this 

 annoyance causes them to avoid the woods during this part of the year. 

 The caterpillars continue to feed until about the middle of July, by which 

 time they have stripped nearly every oak tree of its leaves, and caused it to 

 look as if winter had overtaken it. During the last few years these insect- 

 pests have not contented themselves with stripping the oaks, but have 

 attacked indiscriminately mountain ash, bilberry, brake fern, and all low- 

 lying vegetation. No artificial means could effectually cope with such a 

 wide area as the one attacked. The only remedy is to let Nature take her 



