1894.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



4i 



ing the underside, and the back of the slip may be reserved for duplicates ; 

 or, what is more convenient, two slips placed back to back may be used. 

 The slips may be kept upright in the jar by a small strip of copper ^in. 



wide, and as long as the width of the jar, bent in the middle 1 '— 



to receive the upper edge of the glass clip. The advantage of this 

 method is the rapid and easy execution, the time occupied being about 

 two minutes, while the cost is small. A stoppered glass jar, six inches 

 high by one-and-a-quarter inch diameter costs about ninepence, and an 

 opal glass slip 5in. by iin. by T V n - costs three fathings, say tenpence in 

 all, and in such a jar, both sides of the slip being utilized, twelve to 

 sixteen specimens of a medium-sized spider, e.g., Zilla Africa, may be 

 effectively displayed. The space occupied is small, a great desideratum 

 in museums, as well as private collections. — G. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



PlERIS DAPLIDICE AND OTHER RHOPALOCERA AT CoURTOWN, Co. 



Wexford. — Butterflies were very plentiful in the locality last season, but 

 the number of species on the whole was rather small. Colias edusa was 

 taken once, also Ccenony??ipha davus. Vanessa atalanta was very 

 abundant, and in fine condition, and V. io not uncommon, these often 

 occurring together ; but we only saw two or three specimens of V. 

 {Cynthia) cardui. The fritillaries Argynnis paphia and Melitcea artemis 

 were not rare in the woods, and Satyr us semele and Epinephile hyperan- 

 thus Hb., pear the sea. The prize of the collection, however, was a fine 

 male Pier is daplidice, captured by Mr. Hind, on August 18th. It was 

 probably a straggler from Great Britain or the Continent, as the species 

 had never previously been taken in Ireland. — H. G. Cuthbert. 



BOTANY. 



Early Flowers. — A word may, perhaps, be allowed upon the subject 

 of the present season — earlier, indeed, than 1893 — and it will be curious 

 to see what remains for us during the Spring. The winds, generally 

 from the west, have been remarkably high and comparatively warm. It 

 is officially stated from Liverpool that there have been more high winds 

 during the past three weeks than during the whole of last year. In the 

 neighbourhood of Warrington, not a particularly early locality, winter 

 aconite, yellow crocuses, snowdrops, primroses, wall-flowers, sweet 

 violets, and here and there a pyrus japonica bush, were in bloom by the 

 last week in January, and daffodils are now ready to burst their buds. 

 Gooseberry trees had quite a green appearance. Birds — thrushes, 

 chaffinches, and hedge sparrows — were in song before February, and now 

 the blackbirds are returning to their accustomed haunts in the shrub. 



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