Insects. 1 09 



liole a little elevated above, and near to, the edge of the water. When 

 the rat first saw me it attempted to return into its hole, but was evi- 

 dently opposed, and at length driven back by some foe then invisible 

 to me : for immediately afterwards it began to struggle with renewed 

 energy, and eventually extricated itself from the hole, when to my 

 great surprize it dragged up after it an eel, about three quarters of a 

 pound in weight, and which appeared to me to have the greatest por- 

 tion of the rat's tail in its mouth. As soon as the head of the eel was 

 dragged about six inches out of the hole, it liberated the rat, but whe- 

 ther through fear of me, or being suddenly and unexpectedly raised 

 into a foreign element, I cannot, of course, speak decisively. I may 

 however add, that the eel was so far dragged on terra Jirma by the 

 rat, that it had considerable difficulty in wriggling itself back again 

 into the hole, which, on examination, I found had communication 

 with the water beneath. The following facts, which I also beg to add, 

 corroborate the carnivorous propensity of the eel, and especially its 

 predilection for the mouse family. A gentleman, now residing at 

 Blackpool, Lancashire, informed me that a few years ago he was pre- 

 sented with a large eel, which had been taken out of the principal 

 drain of Marton Meer ; on opening the monster he found a full-grown 

 rat in the stomach. Several persons also residing in my own imme- 

 diate neighbourhood, who make a practice of placing night lines with 

 hooks, in deep water, for eels, always tell me that the most successful 

 bait for a large eel is a skinned mouse, or a young sparrow stripped 

 of its feathers. — «/. B. Banister ; Garstang, Lancashire, February 

 14, 1843. 



Notes on Lepidopterous Insects. By Edward Doubleday, Esq., 

 F.L.S., Assistant in the Zoological Department of the British 

 Museum. 



About a year since while looking over the collection of Lepidop- 

 tera sent from Silhet by Mr. Stainsforth, and now in my brother's 

 possession, I was delighted by observing what seemed to me a new 

 species of Leptocircus; but further investigation made me suspect 

 that this would turn out to be the true Papilio Curius of Fabricius, 

 and consequently that the species now considered to be that insect, 

 and on which the genus Leptocircus was founded, would, for the fu- 

 ture, have to bear the name of Meges bestowed on it by Zinken, who, 

 by the bye, was evidently quite unsuspicious of his insect having 



