THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



263 



amount of superstition and dread this harm- 

 less insect is held in in some countries. Mr. 

 Knapp says " a letter is now before me, from 

 a correspondent in German Poland, where 

 this insect is very common and so abundant, 

 in 1824, that my informant collected fifty of 

 them in a potato field of his village, where 

 they call them the " Death's Head Phantom," 

 the "Wandering Death Bird," &c. The 

 markings on its back represent to their fer- 

 tile imaginations the head of a perfect skel- 

 eton, with the limb-bones crossed beneath; 

 its cry becomes the voice of anguish, the 

 moning of a child, the signal of grief ; it is 

 regarded not as the creation of a benevolent 

 being, but the device of evil spirits — spirits 

 enemies to man, conceived and fabricated in 

 dark; the very shining of its eyes is thought 

 to represent the fiery element, whence it is 

 supposed to have proceeded. Flying into 

 their apartments in the evening it at times 

 extinguishes the light, fore-telling war, pesti- 

 lence, hunger, and death to man and beast." 



" Over foreign lands the Death's Head 

 Hawk Moth has a wide range of distribution. 

 It occurs in considerable abundance in all 

 the southern countries of Europe, in the two 

 extremities of Africa, and in the Isle of 

 France. In the latter country, according to 

 H. Pierre, a belief prevails that the dust cast 

 from its wings, in flying through an apart- 

 ment, produces blindness if it happen to 

 fall upon the eyes." — J. J. Nixon, Derby, 

 September 7th, 1884. 



Scarcity of C. Xeram£>elina, — I devoted 

 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the 21st, 

 22nd and 23rd inst.,to an extensive search 

 for Xerampelina. On the first day I visited 

 a locality near to Newby Hall (three miles 

 distant from Eipon), where I had a great 

 success in my first season of taking Xeram- 

 jpeli?ia, I should box at least a dozen speci- 

 mens ; but I could not find one on Thursday, 

 it was a complete failure. On Friday I took 

 train to Nidd Bridge (next station to Harro- 

 gate). This was fresh ground, not having 



worked it before. I had strong hopes of suc- 

 ceeding, as I had frequently noticed the large 

 number of ashes growing in this neighbour- 

 hood, especially in a park about midway be- 

 tween Eipley and Wormald Green station. 

 Well, after walking many miles and carefully 

 searching scores of ash-trees, I succeeded in 

 obtaining three specimens, with which I was 

 very well satisfied ; indeed I began to fear at 

 one time that I was going to fail in finding 

 any at all, as I had examined a large number 

 of trees before I found the first moth, a rich, 

 dark specimen. On Saturday I started off 

 for Fleniford Park (near to the village of 

 Tanfield, six miles distant from Eipon). It 

 was here I took the largest number I ever 

 found in one day: I found three in this 

 locality last summer, one of which was the 

 variety described in the Entomologist. I think 

 I made a thoroughly exhaustive search on 

 Saturday and succeeded in obtaining one 

 specimen only, so that the net result of the 

 three days searching are only four. They 

 are, however, all of them, I think, quite per- 

 fect ; indeed I have no doubt they would only 

 have emerged from the pupa on the same day 

 I found them. — T. Meldrum, Eipon, 25th 

 August, 1884, 



Abundance of Vanessa atalanta, Cardui, 

 and Plusia gamma. — As the occurrence of 

 any insect in unusual numbers is always 

 worth noticing, it may be interesting to the 

 readers of the Young Naturalist to know that 

 in this part of North Devon three insects 

 have appeared during the last week or so, in 

 most uncommon proportions, viz.- V. atalanta t 

 Cardui, and P. Gamma, they swarm every- 

 where. Now there are two facts connected 

 with this that seem to me worth noticing. 

 The first is that V. atalanta, though always 

 considered common, is not an insect that as 

 a rule appears in any great abundance ; one 

 sees a few specimens every spring and 

 autumn, but that is all, now it is everywhere, 

 — gardens, fields, hedgerows, See,, and not in 

 twos or threes, but in dozens, and all splendid 



