Notes and Comments. 307 



papers : — ' The Fiftieth Birthday of N.H.S. : Notes on the 

 Early History of N.H.S.' by Canon J. M. Wilson ; ' Remi- 

 niscences of Charles Darwin,' and ' The Habits of Sesia 

 bembeciformis,' by W. C. Marshall ; ' Some Metallic Carbon 

 Compounds,' by C. V. Patrick ; ' Surface Tension,' by M. 

 Bateson ; ' Aluminium,' by J. D. R. Murray; ' The Migration 

 of British Birds,' by R. P. Greg; 'The Tawny Owl,' by C. C. 

 Bevington, as well as summaries of proceedings, and twelve 

 sectional reports. The illustrations include : — Francis Elliot 

 Kitchener, Captain Frederick Courteney Selous, The Tawny 

 Owl, Lesser Whitethroat's Nest, Lapwing's Nest, A Corner of 

 the Horse Pond in Fawsley Park, Fawsley Church and Stokesay 

 Castle. We congratulate this well-known society on its jubilee. 



THE ANTLER MOTH PLAGUE. 



The Journal of the Board of Agriculture for August contains 

 two papers of a special interest, namely, ' Report on an In- 

 festation of Larvae of the Antler Moth (Charceas graminis, L.) 

 in the Peak District/ by A. C. Cole and A. D. Imms, and ' An 

 Invasion of the Caterpillars of the Antler Moth into Yorkshire," 

 by John Snell. From the latter we learn that ' the damage 

 done by the pest appears to have been confined entirely to the 

 mountain pastures land, and in no instance does it appear to 

 have reached the meadow lands or the mowing grass. Early 

 in May, one or two farmers in the Airton district had noticed 

 that some of their pasture still maintained a ' brown, winter 

 appearance,' and that the sheep were being ' starved,' but it 

 was only about the 1st June that they actually observed the 

 presence of the caterpillars. The pastures which were first 

 attacked were those near the tops of the Fell. On one farm 

 alone on Scotsthrop Moor over 100 acres of mountain pasture 

 were damaged to such an extent that practically no stock will 

 be able to be carried for the rest of the summer. In this 

 district there is practically no arable land, but the farmers were 

 greatly alarmed lest the plague should spread to the better 

 pastures and the meadow land in the valleys and on the lower 

 slopes of the hills. The caterpillars were most abundant by 

 the walls and along the small watercourses which intersect 

 the pastures. At first, it was thought that this was due to the 

 fact that in these situations there was probably a larger pro- 

 portion of the harder and smoother grasses, but subsequent 

 investigation indicated that the walls and the small streams 

 acted as barriers to their progress. In the small stone folds 

 thousands of caterpillars accumulated in the corner of a field. 



CATERPILLARS MIGRATING. 



' When the district was visited on the 15th June, which was 

 a bright .sunny day, a large proportion of the caterpillars 

 appeared to be migrating rather than feeding. The extent to 



1917 Oct. 1. 



