I n seels. 4811 



and he returned the compliment by taking her fingers into his mouth several times, 

 without doing much harm. Consequently she don't love this snake as much as she 

 does the other one, though he is generally fond of her. The parents, with the little 

 girl and snake, are now on a visit to this city, for the purpose of receiving such aid as 

 the minds of scientific men can bring to them. They have been visited in their rooms 

 by many citizens since their arrival, ou Friday ; and the deep interest which the entire 

 community feel in this very remarkable case, together with the curiosity manifested to 

 see them, has induced Mr. Hill to prolong his visit for two or three days, for the pur- 

 pose of giving the public such an opportunity at Cochiluate Hall, Tremont Street, 

 near the head of School-street, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, July 

 23rd, 24th and 25th, from two o'clock till five p.m. His stay must of necessity be 

 brief and cannot, by any possibility, be extended beyond this time. — Boston (U.S.) 

 Evening Gazette, July 21, 1855.* 



Gonepteryx Rhamni double-brooded. — I only saw the May, June and July num- 

 bers of the 'Zoologist' a day or two since, and was not previously aware of the dis- 

 cussion as to whether G. Rhamni is or is not double-brooded. Mr. Bree's letter 

 compels me first to make a few remarks upon the meaning of the term double-brooded. 

 Until I read his communication I never supposed that it was applied to a species 

 which does not go through all its changes twice in one year ; in other words, which 

 has not two distinct broods in each season. An insect which is hatched from the egg 

 in the spring, goes through its changes during the summer, and produces the perfect 

 insect in the autumn, hybernates, and reappears in the spring, cannot possibly be 

 called double-brooded ; and this is the case with G. Rhamni. There is most certainly 

 "but one brood in the year. I have reared numbers from the eggs, and can speak posi- 

 tively on the subject. The female butterfly deposits her eggs about the middle of 

 April, upon the shoots of Rhamnus catharticus and R. Frangula; and in a lane near 

 this place, where the former species grows intermixed with -dogwood, whitethorn, 

 blackthorn, &c, T have often watched the female, and observed how unerringly she 

 distinguished the shoots of the buckthorn, never depositing an egg upon the twigs of 

 the other shrubs with which it was closely intermixed. These eggs hatch early in 

 May, and the larvae are fuli-grown about the end of June ; they then assume the 

 pupa state, and in twenty days the butterflies come forth, that is, about the end of 

 July, and they continue to appear till the middle of August. These specimens hyber- 

 nate, and reappear in the spring. A moment's consideration must convince any one 

 that the statement in Humphrey and Westwood's work, that a fresh brood appears in 

 May, is incorrect: the insect could not possibly go through its changes in so short a 

 time. The perfect state of some of the specimens which appear in spring is no proof 

 that they have not hybernated ; but I must say that I have never seen one equal to 

 those found in August. Still, I admit that many are in good condition ; but it must 

 be remembered that numbers become quiescent very soon after they have emerged 

 from the pupa state, and appear in spring almost as fresh as when first hatched. That 



* Obligingly communicated by William Yarrell, Esq. 



