230 



I February, 



Hind-wings. Ground colour ashy-white. The only normal markings are 

 those at the extreme base and the two blotches at the junction of the nervnres. 

 The spaces between the nervnres are more or less suffused with brownish scales. 

 The ocelli are distinctly outlined, and several are only indicated. Body ashy-white. 



The specimen is in good condition, and as only very few specimens have mado 

 their appearance on our sand-hills this year, I may congratulate myself that tho 

 only one which I took should prove so remarkable. — E. L. Eagonot, 130, Conway- 

 street, Birkenhead. 



A railway train stopped by caterpillars ! — We think the following extract from 

 the Melbourne "Argus" (Australian paper), of October 13th, 1868, {worthy of 

 being reprinted here : — " One day last week, the hairy caterpillars that are so 

 destructive to barley at a late period of the year were crossing the Sandhurst 

 railway in such numbers, a few miles from town, that they stopped a train, not by 

 the magnitude of the obstruction, but by rendering it impossible for the engine to 

 grip the rails, as the caterpillars were crushed beneath the wheels." We have no 

 means of ascertaining the name of this larva, but it probably belongs to the Bomhyces. 

 — Editors. 



A Rejoinder to the Rev. T. A. Marshall's Reply on the gender of Acanthosoma. — 

 I am much obliged to Mr. Marshall for his answers to some of my questions ; but 

 if they prove anything, they prove too much, and they plfice me in this dilemma, 

 that if I accept them as satisfactory, I cannot see that our old friend Barma is 

 anything but an adjective, and if so, I cannot detect why it is neuter, as Mr. Marshall 

 has told us it is. 



The contention is, that Acanthosoma cannot be, but that Earma is, neuter. 

 Substitute Harma for Acanthosoma in the demonstration, ante, p. 209, and it stands 

 thus : — 



" The subject of this word is a certain group of bugs. This subject is not 

 contained in the word Earma, but is understood. Every noun that does not contain 

 tho subject, must contain the predicate, or it has no meaning at all.* And if it 

 contains only the predicate, it is what grammarians call an adjective. Therefore 

 Earma is an adjective. Q. E. D." 



I venture to think that, both here and at page 209, Q. E. D. must be read 

 Quod est dubitandum. But if Earma be really an adjective, is it not as feminine as 

 Acanthosoma ? 



The same line of argument would prove with equal conclusiveness that redhreast 

 and wagtail are adjectives ; though I cannot quite make out whether Mr. Marshall 

 considers them to be adjectives, or admits them to rank as substantives, but sub- 

 stantives " not grammatical or logical," tainted with " incorrectness." 



As the word " illogical " did not alarm me on the former occasion, the word 

 " ungrammatical " does not frighten me now. I care not to inquire whether it bo 

 true that redbreast and wagtail " belonged originally to the language of the vulgar 



* Mr. Marshall can scarcely say that ITarma has no meaning at all. He would ncrer hare pro- 

 posed to reject llahn's significant Jnna for the meaningless //nrwia. I hare been reminded that (here 

 is a genus Harma oi butterflies; which is another ground for retaining Arma.—J. W. D 



