THE TOUNG NATURALIST. 



If it had to be fought, he felt sure such economic entomologists as understood 

 its morphology, would give the farmers such information and instructions as 

 would soon stamp it out of this country ; observing it was only ignorance 

 that caused such scares as this of the Hessian Fly and that of the Colerado 

 Beetle. 



An informal discussion afterwards arose on " Evolution v. Immutability of 

 species," during which Mr. Gregson promised to read a paper on " Immuta- 

 bility of species " before the club, at an early date. 



All the lepidopterous collections exhibited were labelled by Robson and 

 Gardner's list, the variety names printed therein giving it a value for col- 

 lections over every other list at present in use.- — W. H. Woodcock, Hon. 

 Secretary. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Lost! a Bumble-bee's Nest. — My youngest brother and myself, while 

 out on the moor in August of this year, were driven by a heavy rain-storm to 

 take refuge in a little barn, which stood between the heather and the culti- 

 vated land. There being no windows to the barn we left the door standing 

 open, and owing to this fortunate circumstance, we were witnesses of one of 

 the most curious incidents it has ever been my lot to see. 



We had not been in the barn more than two or three minutes, before we 

 noticed that there were a number of humble bees flying restlessly about in the 

 doorway, and every now and then settling under the door and crawling about 

 on the ground. We, of course, at once concluded that there was a nest under 

 the door, and we went up to see what it was that was disturbing the bees, 

 examination proved that there was a nest, but that its entrance was not, as 

 we had supposed, under the door as it then stood, but was situated between 

 the stone which formed the doorstep and the first board of the wooden floor, 

 at a spot which bore the same relative position to the door when shut, as 

 that for which the bees were now making, did to the door when open. As 

 soon as we noticed this fact we shut the door, and the bees — a moment before 

 so puzzled — at once found their nest, others, too, coming up, dropped into 

 the hole without hesitation. We then opened the door again, and once more 

 the bees that came up were quite at fault, and further closings and openings 

 of the door were followed by precisely similar results. The fact appeared to 

 be that the bees while recognizing the door, and remembering under which 

 part of it their nest was usually situated, were totally unable to take in the 

 fact of the door itselfjja^irig moved. — E. E. Peescott Decie, 4, Pump 

 Court, Temple. 



