Reptiles. 1399 



Monk's Wood, Hunts, in many of the woods round Colchester, and in the wood on 

 Mersea Island, Essex. The blue and black hair-streak butterflies (Theclce quercus, 

 and W. album) are now on the wing, and the marbled white {Arge Galathea) is some- 

 times to be found in great profusion, but is very local. The comma butterfly {Vanessa 

 C. album) which has nearly disappeared round London, is still common in many 

 places ; in Monk's Wood it may be met with in plenty in this month, and the speci- 

 mens which occur at this time of the year are much paler in colour than those found 

 in September. Many moths now appear : among them the beautiful Thyatira derasa, 

 Triphcena fimbria, T. janthina, and T. interjecta, several of the genus Graphiphora, 

 and many Geometrce. Among these the beautiful and variable orange moth (Angerona 

 prunaria) may be seen flying in open places in woods, at or a little before sunset. — 

 Henry Doubleday ; Naturalises Almanack for 1845. 



Egg laid by a Tortoise. — There have been three tortoises in the kitchen-garden 

 here for some time, one of them for three years, and the other two a shorter time. This 

 winter they all three died, which is strange, as it has been so mild a winter. But what I 

 wish to mention is, that some little time ago, the gardener picked up a round white 

 egg, which he thought was a tortoise-egg, but which we could not prove certainly to be 

 so, though not knowing what else it could be ; but a few days ago he lifted up the dead 

 body of one off a heap of rubbish where it had been thrown, and which was a mass of 

 decomposed matter, the shell only being sufficiently entire to lift it up by. Amongst 

 the dirt, small bones of the skeleton, &c. inside the shell we saw something white (for 

 I was present), and on routing it out it proved to be a second egg, precisely like the 

 one first found, and putting it beyond a doubt that it was also a tortoise's. This con- 

 firms what Mr. Bell suggests in his ' British Reptiles,' that there are many of the fo- 

 reign land and river tortoises that might be naturalized in Great Britain with a little 

 care. These were left always to shift for themselves the short time we had them, the 

 one that had been here three winters buried itself always during the winter, not ap- 

 pearing till the fine weather came in the spring. They lived on the young lettuces 

 and other things, and in the summer were not seen sometimes for a week at a time, 

 when the garden was thickly planted. The eggs are about the size of those of a 

 pigeon, but round, and apparently with a very thick and hard shell. This winter be- 

 ing so mild, they had not buried themselves sufficiently deep, or had been tempted 

 to come out of their hiding-places too soon, I suppose ; or whether being so mild, in- 

 sects were at work and attacked them, I don't know ; but I have been away from 

 home all the winter, and could not therefore see them when they first died, to try and 

 trace the cause of their death. It is curious that though in other winters they should 

 be sufficiently aware of the season, as to prepare for it by burying themselves, that 

 this winter they should have changed their custom so entirely as to think of the re- 

 production of the species. — J. W. G. Spicer ; Esher Place, April 18th, 1846. 



Eggs found in a Tortoise. — I have kept a tortoise for twenty-four months in a gar- 

 den alone. On Saturday the 2nd instant it died, and on a post mortem examination, 

 was found to contain five eggs of a white colour, and strong shell, besides a lot of im- 

 perfect affairs such as a hen shows sometimes. — Henry Newman ; Birmingham. 



