2030 Fishes— Inserts. 



was missing, then another ; at length one day a little boy came running to tell me 

 that the large trout had got a gold-fish in his mouth, and had swallowed all but the 

 tail. I went and found it too true, and Master Trout was immediately condemned 

 to death. After this, being curious to see how the trout captured his prey, I procured 

 another, about \ lb. weight, and put him into the same basin, where he soon became 

 tame and familiar. We fed him with minnows, and it was very interesting to watch 

 his manoeuvres. When a minnow was thrown in, he would immediately ascend from 

 his usual station at the bottom of the basin nearly to the top, hover over his prey like 

 a hawk for a few seconds, and then dart down with unerring aim, invariably seizing 

 the minnow by the head ; and, in my humble opinion, for this very natural reason, 

 that it could not well swallow it tail first ; at least it would stand a good chance of 

 being choked by the expanded tail and fins. 



Disease in Fish : Abundance of Fish in Norfolk. — I have seen lately, in the Bure, 

 at Aylsham, several fish affected with a kind of leprosy. Large blotches appear on 

 the body, apparently destroying the scales ; the body of one was nearly covered. The 

 fish, roach and dace, were very sluggish and solitary, not associating in the shoals of 

 sound fish. In proof of the quantity of coarse fish in our Norfolk rivers, I may men- 

 tion that on one occasion I helped to draw a net containing about 25 stone, above 

 700 in number, of roach and dace, with a few pike and perch. This was in the Wave- 

 ney, near Harleston, and one of the party was my friend Mr. Wollaston. — H* T. 

 Frere. 



On the Method of attracting Lepidoptera by Light. — Having been asked by many 

 entomologists how I conduct my operations for attracting by light, I have thought 

 that a few words on the subject in your pages would not be unacceptable to the ma- 

 jority of your entomological readers. My attracting apparatus consists of three gas- 

 lights, with fifteen-hole argand burners. One of these is affixed to the outside of a 

 balcony, at an altitude of twenty feet from the ground, and protected by a lantern 

 (somewhat like a street gas-lamp), which has a reflector at the back : in the room 

 which opens on to this balcony is another light, which is kept within about two inches 

 of the window ; this has also a reflector behind it : the third is in the room below the 

 balcony. I consider it very essential that there should be a light outside the building, 

 since one inside a room has but a confined sphere of action compared with one com- 

 pletely outside. The outer light attracts the moths to the spot, and then the inner 

 ones attract them into the house ; and great numbers thus get caught without the 

 slightest trouble on the part of the captor. I should also mention that my balcony is 

 roofed, so that all insects passing the first light are retained at least for a time, and 

 keep crawling up and down under the roof of the balcony, which is sometimes a per- 

 fect mass of insects, so that which to catch first is a matter of great perplexity. The 

 locality in which I am situated is not what one would consider a very good one : the 

 nearest wood in the direction of my light is that on Shooter's Hill, at least three miles 

 distant, Dulwich Wood being about the same distance in the opposite direction. 

 There is a great deal of hedge-row timber in the neighbonrhood, principally elms, 

 and a few oaks and willows : birches and firs are scarce. There is no heather nearer 

 than Shooter's Hill; yet I am quite satisfied that many insects I have taken have 



