16 REPORTS. 



next year. Emmelesia albuldta is an insect which I recorded 

 in my early days in the Island and never saw again (faith in 

 my own record was greatly shaken) until I caught a beautiful 

 fresh specimen at Petit Bot on June 6th. It ought, since it 

 occurs, to be fairly common as its food plant is the Yellow 

 Rattle. Pempelia palumbella, 18th of June, Pleinmont, is of 

 interest, the only other record being " one specimen bred by 

 Mrs. Boley." No date or locality given. The " Guernsey 

 (or Jersey ?) Tiger," Callimorpha Iter a (quadripunctata) has 

 been very common, and one " Death's Head," to my know- 

 ledge, came to light at the Imperial Hotel in the last week of 

 September and was handed to me by Miss Gill. 



Frank E. Lowe, F.E.S., 



Hon. Sec, JEntom. Section. 



Report of the Ornithological Section, 191 7. 



What with the unusually severe and terribly long winter 

 of 1916-1917, the cold spring (for twenty-four years at least 

 nothing like so cold a March and April had been experienced 

 here) and the officially recommended raiding of certain nests, 

 our birds have had a bad time of it this year. Both as 

 regards the effects of the prolonged frost and the destruction 

 of the nests that followed, the bird-life of Guernsey probably 

 suffered less than was the case in England where, the nesting 

 question apart, the weather was very much more severe. 



Man and bird have no control over the temperature ; 

 both must adapt themselves to the cold or heat of wayward 

 seasons, but the sacking of nests is altogether another matter; 

 it can be encouraged by law (as we have unfortunately seen 

 done this year), or it can be discouraged. When the former 

 course is in operation, then woe betide the poor birds. Had 

 they been given the choice of the two evils as was done of old 

 to King David, they would probably have exclaimed with 

 that great man : " We are in a great strait : let us fall now 

 into the hand of the Lord ; for his mercies are great : and let 

 us not fall into the hand of man." 



Birds, without doubt, have a purpose to fulfil in the 

 economy of nature ; they are useful to man in more ways 

 than one. A writer said recently : " At all times redundant 

 species should be brought within reasonable limits, and species 

 known to be directly harmful should be eliminated, but these 

 steps should only be taken under the direction of those who 

 are in full possession of the facts." (Y.W.P., March 17, 1917). 

 Even so I demur in the matter of the utter elimination of any 



