Field Notes. 329 



of these varigrowths to soil matrix and elevation above sea- 

 level, plus aspect, N.S.E. and W. but never allwards, can be 

 arrived at. This perhaps is all we can do, beyond recording 

 our impressions which, too, may develop and vary with that 

 ' experience ' which alone ' teaches ' as the Latin tag had it. 

 In my own Flora of West Yorkshire, I recorded it up to 750 

 feet, and gave several Rib-Craven stations. In the as-yet 

 unpublished Supplement, I -assign this ascending Excelsiorian 

 to the Early Modern or Patrial Class, which, ' doing its bit ' 

 to compensate for the eons of disintegrational elimination of 

 earlier forms of herb life, is slowly but surely gaining a higher 

 foot of earth where circumstances allow of it. In 1888 it 

 had reached Addingham in Wharf edale, it has now got much 

 higher by the river nearly to Coniston Cold. 



GEOLOGY. 



Mammoth Teeth on the Yorkshire Coast. — Though the 

 opportunities for examining the Holderness Cliff sections at the 

 present time are not ideal, coast erosion still goes on, and has 

 revealed a number of teeth of the mammoth (Elephas pnmi- 

 genius). We have recently obtained examples from Spurn 

 Point, Withernsea and Hornsea. — T. Sheppard. 



— o — 

 ENTOMOLOGY. 



Wilsden Lepidoptera. — A few days ago one of our 

 schoolmaster's sons described a butterfly which he had recently 

 seen in this neighbourhood, which could be no other than a 

 Camberwell Beauty ( Vanessa antiopa). It must, I think, be 

 thirty years since I last saw this species in the Wilsden district. 

 On Friday last, a friend of mine informed me that he saw at 

 rest on a wall near Thornton, in August, a Convolvulus Hawk 

 Moth {Sphinx convolvuli) ; and whilst talking with a friend in 

 the main street here, at the end of July, I saw a Humming- 

 bird Hawk Moth (Macroglossa stellatarum) feeding on the red 

 valerian, and another specimen of this species flew into a house 

 in this town and was shown to me. Another insect which I 

 have not seen for years was brought to me by a contractor's 

 son, namely Sesia bembeciformis, which he had taken from the 

 bole of a willow. I have only seen one specimen of Scoparia 

 conspicualis this year. Scoparia pyralalis, which is a very 

 local insect in this district, I saw very plentifully on the pipe 

 tract near Bingley. Coccyx vacciniana, which I have always 

 considered scarce up to this year, I found in some plenty near 

 Bingley. I took one Mixodia schulziana on Baildon Moor 

 last June or July ; only one record is previously given for 

 this district, for 1897. — E. P. Butterfield, Bank House, 

 Wilsden, 12th Sept., 1917. 



1917 Oct.l. 



