Notes and Extracts 



355 



the slow moving line of carriages. Not infrequently a troop 

 of giraffes will appear. On one occasion a passenger wit- 

 nessed the attempt of half a dozen of these animals to cross 

 the line in front of the train. One of them, a tall bull, had 

 not sense enough to duck his head and was caught across the 

 throat by the telegraph wire on the other side. Still he 

 would not stoop, but continued to struggle with the impediment 

 until the train had passed, when he turned and went back. 



A fine specimen of an uncommon insect, the Striped Hawk- 

 Moth (Deilephila livomica), was taken last August in Whitmoor 

 Bottom, Greyshott, Hants (about five miles from Haslemere). 

 It was acquired by Mr. H. Watkins, of Ridgeways, Hindhead, 

 who kindly presented it to the Haslemere Museum. 



It is of sporadic appearance in this country. Some years 

 there are few or no records, occasionally it appears in some 

 numbers. Its census is apparently not influenced by meteor- 

 ological conditions. It was abundant in the cold wet year of 

 i860, also in the fine hot summer of 1870. 



Leaf Miners. — In reply to a query, the Rev. E. N. Bloom- 

 field has kindly supplied us with the following notes : — 



The oval mines on the oak leaves are those of a Lithocolletis, a 

 genus of small moths which all make very similar mines and pupate 

 within the mines. I cannot tell you which species, probably all are 

 the same. There are eight or nine species in Britain which feed on 

 the oak, on the underside of the leaf, and the mines are very similar. 

 There are other species which feed on other trees, thus : L. sylvella 

 on maple, L.faginella on beech, L. coryli on the upper side of hazel, 

 L. nicelii on the under side of hazel, L. pomifoliella on apple and L. 

 meiianiella on evergreen oak. Some trees have two species of Litho- 

 colletis, some four, and the oak eight or nine species. All the mines 

 are much alike, very few feed on the upper surface. 



The serpentine mine on the upper side of the oak leaf is that of a 

 Nepticula (small moth), probably N. ruficapitella ; there are only two 

 British nepticulae which feed on oak in this manner. Sometimes you 

 may find a green patch in the middle of a yellow oak leaf, containing, 

 in a small blotch, the larva of N. suffimaculella. The genus Nepticula 

 has very numerous species on various trees, shrubs and herbs. They 

 all, or nearly all, come out when full fed and pupate among dead 



