8o 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[ApriL 



road to Eastham Wood, I took a round-about way and searched the 

 wood late in the afternoon. I was quite pleased to find four leuco- 

 phearia, and they were all I got for my seven hours out and home. Since 

 then we have had little but frost and snow.— C. S. Gregson, Liverpool, 

 February 22nd. 



Cross-breeding of Zygjenm. — -I am not at all surprised to learn 

 that Filipendulce, trifolii, and lonicerce have been crossed and bred. 

 Their anal organs are very close, and I do not see why they should 

 not have fertile pairings. But the form of the organs in Meliloti would 

 effectually prevent crossing with it. In this species the organs are more 

 like Exulans than any of these three. — F. N. Pierce, F.E.S. Liverpool. 



Grey Phalarope. — Towards the end of October last year, after 

 one of the many gales, a specimen of this bird was seen in the parish 

 and, I am sorry to have to add, was shot by a man near whose cottage 

 it had stayed for nearly ten days. It was so tame that when disturbed 

 by anyone passing along the road it would only fly off" to a short 

 distance and very soon be back near the cottage. We hear that two 

 or three other specimens have been shot in different parts of Hereford- 

 shire during the autumn, a most unusual occurrence, and it is, at 

 least in this neighbourhood, quite a new record. — Norah Prescott 

 Decie, Bockleton Court, Tenbury, February 17th. 



Amaurobius ferox. — The spider sent me is Amaurobius ferox, 

 adult male, one of our finest spiders, and, as you surmise, an 

 inhabitant of dark dens and outhouses. It spins a tubular nest 

 amongst rocks by the seaside, in quarries, or in cellars. The female 

 often grows to a very large size, and is very fierce and formidable. 

 The female has in the hind tarsi the calamistnim, which used with the 

 cribellum (an extra pair of spinning organs) makes the flocculent silk 

 peculiar to the webs of Dictynidce, to which Amaurohmm belongs. A 

 figure of it will appear in an early plate. They themselves watch at 

 the entrance to the tube. 



LLST^OF LEPIDOPTERA OF 



ABERDEENSHIRE AND KINCARDINESHIRE , 



BY WM. REID, PITCAPLE. f 



(Continued from Vol. /., page 16i.) | 



,1 



Thera obeliscata, (variata). — Abundant among fir trees, a very I 



variable species. j 



Thera firmata. — -Local, but not rare among fir trees, can be I 



