728 Insects. 



of the vocal sacs before mentioned. It now remains to be investigated whether the 

 Scottish frog, named by me provisionally R. Scotica, be also distinct from the present 

 species. I suggested in the ' British Reptiles,' the possibility of their being identical. 

 Thomas Bell ; New Broad Street, Sept. 14, 1844. 



Anecdote of a singular application of a Spider's Thread. I should have hesitated 

 before forwarding the following, if I had not had the account from the young man 

 himself, a respectable watch-maker of this town. When Mr. Brunei and his assist- 

 ants were at Cardiff, surveying the line of the TafF-vale railway, one of the cross wires 

 in the sight of one of their levelling instruments happened to break by some means or 

 other. It was taken to a shop, where the relator was at the time, to be repaired. Not 

 being able to procure any wire sufficiently fine for the purpose, they endeavoured to 

 fix the hair spring of a watch, but it would not answer. The young man had just 

 been cleaning out one of the store rooms, and in destroying the webs of the spiders, he 

 had observed the strength and tenacity of the lines that held them in their positions. 

 The thought struck him that he would be able to succeed with them, and immediately 

 went in search of some. Having twisted five or six of them together, he fixed them 

 across the instrument, which then performed perfectly well. When the surveyors had 

 examined and were satisfied with it, he informed them what he had used ; they were 

 surprised, and said they should bear it in mind if anything of the sort happened again. 

 James Bladon. 



[I believe this application of the spider's web is not new. Does not Brewster's 

 volume on Optics in the ' Cabinet Cyclopaedia ' contain a description of the mode of 

 using it ? — Edward Neivman.~\ 



Note on the capture of Colias Edusa at Winchester. Having seen your enquiry as 

 to whether Colias Edusa had been captured this year (Zool. 682), I may perhaps in- 

 trude on your attention, by saying that I was fortunate enough to capture one in a 

 meadow near this place, on the 31st of August last. — Henry Shepherd ; Winchester, 

 September 7, 1844. 



Note on the capture of Colias Edusa in Ireland. Yesterday I observed two indivi- 

 duals of Colias Edusa, flying on the high road near Wexford, and succeeded iu cap- 

 turing one of them. As this is the first time the butterfly has occurred to me, and as 

 it is certainly very rare in this country, this account of its appearance may interest the 

 entomological readers of ' The Zoologist.' I may also mention the elephant hawk- 

 moth (Deilephila Elpenor) and humming-bird hawk-moth {Macroglossa stellatarum), 

 as having been lately taken in this neighbourhood. — Joseph Poole ; Grovetown, near 

 Wexford, September 10, 1844. 



Note on the capture of Colias Edusa at Winchester. Seeing in the last number of 

 your most excellent magazine, ' The Zoologist,' an enquiry if Colias Edusa had been 

 seen this year, I take the liberty of informing you that on Friday last I took a speci- 

 men of it, and this afternoon I captured another, an uncommonly fine one. Both 

 were males. — J. Winter ; North Walls, Winchester, September 14, 1844. 



