Correspondence. 365 



paper. Dr. Knag^s. '" h^'' Ruide, suggests the use of paper decoys for 

 practical collecting, but I know of no one who makes use of this advice. 



The scents emitted by many butterflies have often been described, 

 but is there any evidence that they are produced for any particular 

 purpose ? May they not be excretory rather than secretory ? Mr. AJorley 

 has drawn my attention to the odour of elder given off by recently 

 emerged Spilosonia liibricipcda , the larvae of which have been reared on that 

 plant. As a comment on Mr. Porritt's footnote I should like to raise the 

 point of whether insects are sufficiently educated to find scents inherently 

 attractive or repulsive. Many scents are considered attractive alike by 

 insects and humanity because they depend on a similar taste in food, 

 just as others hnd fa\-our with insects and cats or with cats and mankind. 



Of the sexual odours Ave know little or nothing because we ha\-e no 

 community of interest ; the best known substance capable of artificially 

 exciting sexual feelings through the refactory nerves is valerian, which 

 has this effect on cats and, according to Frank Buckland, on the large 

 carnivora also. 



The sexual odours produced by the females throughout the animal 

 kingdom were practicallj' imperceptible to human senses. On the other 

 hand many male animals secrete substances in connection with their 

 sexual processes of which the human nerves of smell take abrupt notice. 

 The best known of these is musk. 



H. Douglas Smart, Major, R.A.M.C, 



Prisoners of War Hospital, Brocton, Staffs. 



-o- 



FORMER STATUS OF THE C0:MM0N STARLING IN BRITAIN. 



On reading the \ery interesting article on this subject by Mr. E. P. 

 Butterfield in your October issue, I venture to give you my own experience 

 of the starling in this district. The district I am concerned with is the 

 south and south-west of IManchester adjoining the borders of north Cheshire. 

 Fifty-eight years ago, the starling was a very rare bird indeed in this 

 district ; I well remember, when I was a boy% how we looked upon a 

 starling's egg as a great acquisition to our collection of eggs, and in this 

 immediate neighbourhood there was only one pair of birds ; they built 

 in a hole of an old oak. and there was great rivalry with another keen 

 collector as to who should be first to annex the eggs — the tree was called 

 the ' starling oak ' for a number of years. About 1S70, many villa 

 residences were built, ever}' house offering splendid nesting sites for the 

 starling, and the birds (where they came from I cannot say) increased 

 rapidly, and for the last few years we have had an enormous roost in the 

 rhododendrons on an island in our pond. In this district, and indeed in 

 all the districts in and around Manchester, I should say the starling to-day 

 is our commonest bird. 



Herbert Massey, Ivy Lea, Burnage, Didsbury, October zqth, igiS. 



In The Scottdsk Naturalist for September, D'Arcy W'entworth Thompson 

 deals with 'The Sperm-whale and the Blue-whale.', 



We learn from Nature that Mr. J. Reid Moir describes some Casts of 

 the human remains from Java, Heidelberg, Piltdown, Galley Hill and 

 Cro I\Tagnon, in the Ipswich Museum, and states that ' So far as is known 

 tliis is the only collection of its kind in Great Britain.' This would be in- 

 teresting, if true ; but it isn't. 



The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for September contains the 

 following, among other items : — ' Notes on Myriapods ' (Dr. and the Rev. 

 S. G. Brade-Birks) ; ' Fungus Flora of Lancashire ' (H. J. Wheldon) ; 

 ' Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire and South Lancashire ' (T. A. Coward) ; 

 ' Report on Diptera ' (H. Bury). The first, however, appears to deal 

 largely with Kent. 



1918 Nov. I . 



