1890.] 257 



The remarks in Merrin's calendar as to the "Tillainously wet and windy 

 weather" of Portland have been, perhaps, specially true this year, as good collecting 

 days and nights have been rare ; either it rained, or there was a sea mist, or a strong 

 wind, any one of which is quite sufficient to spoil the collecting. In addition to this, 

 the very rough and rocky character of the locality makes any collecting, especially 

 at night, hard work, and often dangerous, unless one knows the ground well and is 

 very careful. One sometimes finds oneself on steep gi'assy slopes with precipices at 

 the foot, invisible from above, or has to climb over piles of huge blocks of stone, 

 each weighing many tons, between which one's foot or body might easily slip and 

 be caught, or one may suddenly come upon the edge of one of the deep quarries 

 and cuttings for tramways, which are scattered all over the island, round which 

 there is never any sort of fencing. Tliere are also holes, the depth of which I have 

 not ascertained, a few feet wide, down which one might easily fall if one did not 

 know of their existence, as their mouths become partly covered with plants, which 

 make them inconspicuous. Altogether, I think that any captures at Portland are 

 well earned, especially in a season like that of the present year. Something was 

 said (Ent. Record, i, 16) about the dangers of taking Agrotis lunigera in the Isle 

 of Wight, but a friend of mine who has taken it in both places tells me that he 

 much prefers that locality to Portland, and that the difficulties and dangers of the 

 two are not to be compared. 



A coloured figure of E. Bankesiella is given in Proceedings of the Dorset N. H. 

 Soc. and Antiq. Field Club, vol. x. The species appears to be very constant in 

 colouring, but the latter specimens are, if anything, more obscurely marked than the 

 ? first taken (the ^ '"'as too worn to describe). There is sometimes a more or less 

 distinct whitish spot near the inner margin, and about two-fifths of the way from 

 the base to the anal angle. In all other respects the description given (En*. Mo. 

 Mag., XXV, 63) is quite satisfactory. — Nelson M. Eichaedson, Montevideo, near 

 Weymouth : September I5ih, 1890. 



Occurrence in Dorset of S. stibsequana, Saw., and M. rufimitrana, H.-S. — In 

 May, 1889, I took a very few specimens of SteganoptycTia subsequana, Haw. (see 

 Ent. Mo. Mag., xxiv, 6), in a wood some miles from Weymouth, composed of various 

 fir and other trees, including Pinus austriaca, spruce, silver fir, larch, oak, &c., &c. 

 I did not at the time recognise the species, which was afterwards kindly named for 

 me by Mr. H. T. Stainton, and I was unable to go for it again until the present 

 year. Although I only took so few specimens in 1889, I had hoped, from what I 

 then saw of it, to be able to obtain it more plentifully by working specially for it, 

 but though I spent several days last May in pursuit of it, I invariably found it very 

 scarce and hard to get. In the wood in wliich I first discovered it I took hardly 

 any this year, but found it in a neighbouring wood of similar chai-acter. Here, 

 however, it was very local, being almost confined to a small portion of the wood, 

 though an occasional straggler occurred elsewhere. I took one specimen flying 

 naturally at dusk ; all the others were beaten out of some kind of fir. I think that 

 these moths were really scarce, and not only apparently so, as even when they seemed 

 to fly readily, on & branch being touched I found them rare, and sometimes worked 

 for hours without seeing one. They are most capricious in their ways, and unless 

 the weather is exactly what they like, they absolutely refuse to move. They also 



