184 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



only upon lichens in Bombay ; the former on rocks, walls, &c., the latter 

 under and in decaying damp or wet wood. Tarache catena (page 382) : — It 

 will probably be found that Calotropis is not a foodplant of the larva of this 

 moth ; it must be a mistake ; plants of the genus Hibiscus are, we know, 

 the common food. The larva is of the common Tar ache type, that is a 

 semi-looper with the prolegs on segments 7, 8 wanting ; it has segments 3, 4 

 somewhat tumid, especially when sitting highly looped with the front part 

 of the body in the air as it is fond of doing ; it is prettily coloured in 

 cloudings of grey and brown and red, varying in shade, the ventrum and 

 sides being brown, red-rusty or nearly black. It rests along dead bits of 

 stick, &c., and always near or on the ground when not feeding, stretched 

 full length, except for a slight loop at segments 5, 6. It ascends the plant 

 to feed on the young leaves at night or in dull weather. Remiglia undata 

 (page 388) : — ^The larva of this feeds upon species of Cassia and, as far as 

 we are aware, only on the small ones such as kleinii. Dasychira mendosa 

 (page 396) has the following history :— The eggs ai-e laid in masses covered 

 with the fluff from the end of the abdomen of the winsfless, or next to 

 wingless, female, in crevices of the tree-trunk, &c. The young larvse, on 

 emerging, are covered with long hair and get wafted about by the wind 

 and so distributed. Considering the moth is so common, it is a curious 

 fact that the female attracts but few males in captivity. The larva feeds 

 upon practically any broad-leafed tree. The common foodplant of Cricula 

 trifenestrata (page 406) in Bombay is Carey a arborea, one of the Myrtacece. 

 Stauropus alternus (page 408) feeds upon many trees. Virachola isocrates 

 larvse feed also inside the fruits of Gardenia and Randia, and even 

 Strychnos nuxvoviica. Parnara colaca ( page 418) : — The life-history will 

 be found at page 60 of Vol, XI of this Journal. Perhaps the commonest 

 foodplant of the larva of Suastus gremius is the wild Phceni.v or date- 

 palm. It feeds, however, upon all palms. Udaspcs folus (page 420) only 

 feeds upon members of the family Scitaminecs ; Alpinia belongs to this 

 family. And so on. 



A LIST OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



In 1883 the British Ornithologist Union published a list of British Birds 

 which was compiled by a Committee of the Union, but in spite of the many 

 changes since that date no new edition of the list was brought out till the 

 early spring of the present year. 



To call the work a list is really rather a misnomer as it is a great deal 

 more than a mere list. Under each species is given a short synonym, the 

 derivation of the scientific name, distribution in the British Isles and a 

 general distribution, while at the end of the book there is an appendix 

 giving reasons for the changing or retaining of certain scientific names. 



The principal interest in this " List " is naturally centred round the 

 much discussed question of nomenclature and the Committee have, it 

 appears, tried to steer a middle course, not going so far as the Authors of 

 the " British Birds " List but at the same time making a number of changes 

 so as to bring the nomenclature of British birds into line with that of more 

 recent writers. They have refused however to change the names of certain 

 well known species, though they admit that according to strict priority 

 these names ought to be changed. A list of these names entitled " Nomina 

 concervanda " is to be found in Appendix II together with the correspond- 

 ing names under the Rules of Nomenclature as drawn up by the 

 International Congress of Zoology. 



The trend nowadays seems to be to mass different genera together but 

 we notice the Committee have not made many changes in this respect. 



