Birds. 2531 



as found in the Isle of Sheppy by Mr. Ingall, and which Mr. Newman had proposed 

 to call retiella. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited a species of Tineidae new to Britain, Nepticula argyropeza 

 of Zeller, taken near Sheffield, and an iEchmia from West Wickham wood. He also 

 exhibited, from the collection of Mr. Allis, Argyresthia Sorbiella, taken on mountain 

 ash, and a new Tinea allied to masculella. 



Mr. Bond exhibited some Coleopterous larvae which had caused great destruction 

 among the tares, at Newton, in Cambridgeshire. He also showed a specimen of 

 Nascia cilialis, from the same locality, — a species which had remained unique since 

 first taken by the Rev. G. Blunt, many years since. 



Mr. Westwood exhibited four species of Paussidae from Port Natal ; also an 

 Elater from Italy, brought thence by Mr. Fortnum, who had remarked quantities of 

 males attracted to and flying round a female, after the manner of Bombyces. 



The President had once observed several males of Ptenicerus sanguinicollis, fully 

 developed under the bark of a tree, but not one female was visible, until he found 

 some deep in the wood, and which, although mature, not having emerged into ac- 

 tivity, the males appeared to be waiting for. 



Mr. Westwood exhibited a piece of pound-cake infested to the centre with Myr- 

 mica domestica, and it was remarkable that at this season, when swarms of winged 

 females appeared, all those herein were apterous. 



Mr. Westwood also exhibited a box containing a collection of angler's flies, ar- 

 ranged according to the times of their appearance. It was interesting to find that 

 the ' gray drake ' and ' green drake ' were but sexes of one species, and to be able 

 to identify the species of the ' stone flies.' 



Mr. Westwood showed some flies and their eggs, part of a cluster of sixty or 

 seventy found in a tuft of hawthorn, about twelve miles from Derby, and sent to him 

 by Mr. Spencer, who had remarked that each fly seemed to remain as a protector 

 over the eggs it had deposited. They were identified as Atheryx Ibis. 



A letter to Mr. Westwood, from Colonel Hearsey, now in India, was read, detail- 

 ing, among other interesting matters, some entomological observations that his con- 

 stant occupation with military duties had not hindered him from making. 



Some observations on the influence of slight changes of temperature on butterflies, 

 by John Davy, Esq., M.D., F.R.S., &c, addressed to W. Spence, Esq., were read. — 

 /. W. D. 



The Birds of Oxfordshire and its Neighbourhood. 

 By the Reverends Andrew and Henry Matthews. 



(Continued from page 2433). 



Class II. — Summer Visitors. 



Under the name of summer visitors are comprised all those elegant 

 birds whose advent to our shores is so anxiously looked for as the 

 harbinger of spring, and whose melodious notes add so much to the 



