76 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[April 



General Notes. 



A Disclaimer. — We venture to trouble you vvith a few observations 

 respecting Mr. R. South's remarks in the January and Ivlarch parts 

 of The British Naturalist, which appear to place an erroneous con- 

 struction on " the action of the City of London Entomological and 

 iSiatural History Society in the matter of my [Mr. vSouth's] commu- 

 nication with reference to the Liiperina testacea, var. nickerlii, question." 

 It is quite true that Mr. South sent us a letter on the subject, but 

 this is not the vdiole story. The said letter in due course w^as laid 

 before the Couricil of the Society. As Mr. South was not a member, 

 the Secretaries (Messrs. Lewcock and Battley) were instructed to 

 oiTer that gentleman an evening to discuss the subject at the Society's 

 rooms. Tlie invitation was also to include any friends Mr. South 

 might wish to accompany him. These instructions were duly carried 

 out, and the selected date was advertised in the usual position in the 

 March number of the Entomologist, of which Mr. South is editor. 

 But soon after publication of the latter magazine, Mr. South wrote 

 us again and declined to attend the meeting. Under these circum- 

 stances the Council could proceed no further in the matter, and left 

 the editor of tiie Entomologist and the editor of the Entomologist' s 

 Record to settle grievances which the Council believed to be mainly 

 personal. Therefore, on behalf of tlie City of London Society, we 

 entirely repudiate the inference deduced from the version given by 

 Mr. South ; and, m conclusion, must express our regret that this 

 subject lias been raked up again after an interval of at least twelve 

 months. - (Signed), G. A. Lewcock, A. U. Battley, J. A. Clark. 



NocTUA Festiva and Variety Conflua. — With regard to the 

 rather animated discussion now on tlie " tapis'" re Noctiia festiva and 

 the form knovvn as var. conflua, from specimens obtained in the North 

 of England and from Scotland, also to Mr. Tutt's attempt to establish 

 var. confjin obtaine. 1 from tlie Shetland Islands as a distinct species, 

 iiaving follow-ed Messrs. Tutt's, South's, and Robsoii's able articles on 

 the subject wit!i deep interest and with a view if possible to throw a 

 little more light on this rather dark question, I invited the entomo- 

 logical memtjers of our Naturalists' Society, Messrs. R. Dutton, S. 

 Walker, J. Hawkins, G. Jackson, and E. G. Potter, all first class 

 collectors and men of considerable experience in matters entomological, 

 to bring all the best forms of festiva, and the so-called var. conflua 

 from the North of England and from Scotland, together with the true 

 var. conflua from the Shetland Islands which they possessed, and 

 to these I added my own specimens, and we also had the advantage 

 of consulting the long series of festiva and so-called var, conflua 



