The Grass or Antler Moth. By James Hardy. 197 



when it appears it increases very rapidly, but disappears as 

 quickly after a good fall of rain. It visited the farms from the 

 very top of Ettrick down the length of Tushielaw, but only to a 

 small extent on that farm, and on no farm to the east of that. It 

 was not seen on the Yarrow hills." 



Knowing that the upper district of Peeblesshire sometimes 

 participated with Ettrick and the Dumfriesshire uplands in these 

 outbreaks of excessive multiplication, I wrote to Mr John 

 Thomson. Stobo Mill, Stobo, to ascertain if he could produce any 

 intelligence. Of date 1st September 1885, he replied : " A friend 

 informed me a few weeks ago, that when up in the pastoral 

 district of Tweedsmuir in this county, the shepherds were com- 

 plaining very much of injury to the grass by grub. He saw 

 large patches of an acre and two acres destroyed — the grass 

 being all pulled up, doubtless by that useful bird, the rook. A 

 good many years ago, I remember of the rooks falling on a piece 

 of old pasture about half-an-acre in extent, which they completely 

 harrowed with their bills, whilst the surrounding parts were 

 untouched." 



The caterpillar of the Antler Moth (Charceas Graminis, L.) first 

 alarmed those interested in grazing in 1740, the scene of its 

 ravages being Sweden. These were continuous for successive 

 years, the meadows having become quite white and dry, as if 

 scorched by fire. It formed the subject of one of De Geer's 

 Memoirs, of which the result is briefly given in an essay in the 

 Amcenitates Academic®, iii. 355, which has been translated in one 

 of Benjamin Stillingfleet's Tracts. It created quite a panic in 

 Sweden. In 1762 the scene was transferred to our own country. 

 In that year, long known as the "wormy year," caterpillars 

 destroyed the grass of the high sheep farms in Tweeddale, the 

 green hills round the heads of Ettrick and Yarrow being 

 rendered completely brown. (New Stat. Acct of Selkirk, Yarrow, 

 p. 42 ; Peeblesshire, Innerleithen, p. 29). 



In 1762, in the parish of Eskdale Muir, the Rev. William 

 Brown says: "The black cattle, which were then far more 

 numerous than they are now, were in great want from an ex- 

 cessive drought. Stirks were bought that year by the Laird of 

 Davington at Lockerbie, for 4s 6d and 5s. In 1765, both sheep 

 and black cattle suffered greatly from another drought, accom- 

 panied with a species of worms which destroyed the grass, by 

 cutting its roots. They appeared about the end of May, and 



