NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 363 



three-quarters filled a large flower-pot. The whole was enveloped in 

 a wool rug, as in a great * tea-cosy.' To keep up heat and damp, and 

 to keep down fungus, I poured half a pint of boiling water on the 

 earth on alternate days, and stood the whole affair for a couple of 

 hours on the stove on the intermediate days. While these fiery 

 ordeals were going on I kept the pupa in its flannel in a box in my 

 breast pocket. On Oct. 5th I heard a mouse-like squeak coming from 

 under the rug, and on unfolding it a brisk healthy moth climbed on to 

 my hand. I lodged it under my large microscope-shade of thin glass, 

 with beech-sprays to climb on, and I fed it on honeycomb and a doll's 

 saucer of water. As days went by the colours improved wonderfully ; 

 the skull and bones — not crossed — became singularly distinct, far 

 better than on any museum specimen I have seen. On the 10th, 

 when I had got a good diagram and notes of the insect, and when 

 everyone in the house had studied it to the full, I let it fly, about 

 dusk. I was surprised at the strength of its flight, but it had a bat- 

 like flittering ; and I can quite believe that I have seen many a * death's- 

 head' on the wing, and have set them down as bats." 



The above may, I think, be taken as an extreme instance of the 

 forcing method — equable heat, moisture, and care to prevent fungoid 

 growths. At the same time I had myself a larva of this moth, and 

 determined to adopt the ordinary method by which I have in past time 

 bred several of the perfect insects in the following spring. My larva 

 on this occasion buried itself at the bottom of a flower-pot of friable 

 earth, kept damp and out of doors, but not ivet ; it formed a sarco- 

 phagus considerably larger than itself, and then changed to a pupa. 

 After several weeks I carefully broke the sarcophagus, in which the 

 pupa lay, and have kept it since that in a large biscuit-tin, in a room 

 where, with a fire every day, the temperature varies from 48° to 55°. 

 It is still a pupa, bright-coloured and lively. I am careful to note 

 whether any appearance of mould appears on the earth, and to keep it 

 just damp. Whether this method will be as successful as Mr. Chud- 

 leigh's remains to be seen. — 0. P. Cambridge ; Bloxworth Rectory, 

 Oct. 29th, 1896. 



GoNOPTERYx RHAMNi IN Ireland. — I belicve I am right in saying 

 that this butterfly does not occur in Ireland, neither do either kinds 

 of buckthorn. It has been "reported " from Killarney, but it is more 

 than doubtful. I determined to try and introduce it in the vicinity of 

 Tipperary, and, by only planting the buckthorn over a small tract of 

 country, to see whether a small, self-sustaining colony could not be 

 formed. In 1890 I obtained 1000 plants of Rhamnus frangula from 

 Messrs. Dickson's, Chester, and had them planted about the place 

 among the shrubs and woods. About half of them did well, the rest suc- 

 cumbing to the rabbits and unfavourable soil. In 1894 I planted 1000 

 more, with about the same result. A few plants of B. catharticus were 

 mixed with these, but did not do well. In August, 1894, Mr. Cooke, 

 of Museum Street, sent me about 250 of the butterflies, and these I 

 turned out about the place. The weather was very unfavourable, and 

 I hardly saw any more of them that year. I left for India that autumn, 

 and only returned in May this year, and there was no one to observe 

 whether they had been seen in 1895. About the first week in June I 



