THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



229 



might like to have these remarks for the 

 sake of your young readers, who may be as 

 much puzzled, as I was when beginning to 

 collect, to distinguish between these two 

 Sphinx larvae. Mrs. Battersby, Cromlyn, 

 Ireland. 



Cuckoo's Eggs. — With reference to your 

 enquiry in No. 130 of the Yowng Nat, p. 

 211, I have a cuckoo's egg I found in a song- 

 thrush's nest in Sherwood Forest in 1871. 

 Besides the cuckoo's were four of the thrush's 

 eggs, and, I suppose, according to the theory 

 of some ornithologists the colour of the 

 cuckoo's egg should to some extent have 

 assimilated with that of the thrush's. But 

 the egg has not a tint of blue about it ; in- 

 deed the ground colour has not even the 

 faint bluish tinge which the only other 

 cuckoo's eggs I have possesses, and which, 

 if I remember rightly, was found in a mea- 

 dow pipit's nest. I have also two yellow- 

 hammer's eggs which are perfectly white, 

 without spot or streak of any colour. The 

 nest, which I found at Grimescar, near here, 

 contained four eggs, all equally white. They 

 were perfectly fresh, and strange as it may 

 appear, it is nevertheless a fact, that on 

 blowing them, the purplish streaky colour- 

 ing matter came out of the interior, no doubt 

 from the lining of the shell. If you would 

 like to see any of these eggs, they are, of 

 course, at your service. — Geo. T. Porritt, 

 Huddersfield, May 9th, 1882. 



C. viNULA. — In No.6of the Y.N. (Ordersof 

 Insects) it is stated that the ichneumon which 

 infests C- vinula does not deposit its eggs until 

 after the larva has cast its last skin, when 

 the tentacles apparently lo.se their power. 

 I may say that on July last I found a larva 

 of the above moth which, though not in its 

 last skin, had ichneumon eggs attached to 

 it. The larva was just about to change, so 

 I was curious to see what would become of 

 the eggs, expecting them to be cast off with 

 the old coat. On the contrary, however, 

 the skin was cast leaving the eggs as firmly 



attached to the larva as ever. The tentacles 

 had not been of much use in this instance 

 in protecting the larva from the attacks of 

 the parasite. I did not succeed in breeding 

 the ichneumons as the larva was unfortu- 

 nately lost when changing the food. — T. T- 

 DouBLEDAY, Team Villas, Gateshead. 



NOTES ON TINEINA. 



[Continued jvom page 60.) 



The Long-horns. — Most of the long- 

 horns are comprised under the two genera 

 JS'cnwphora and Adela, and nearly all the 

 species may be found during this and next 

 month. I will now speak of the first genus, 

 leaving the second for next week or the first 

 convenient opportunity. All the species 

 have very long antennae, greyish ochreous 

 fore wings, and are found in woods. N. 

 Stvammerdamella is perhaps the most com- 

 mon. Go to the nearest wood, beat the 

 bush, and you will be almost sure to dis- 

 lodge it. It is the largest species, measuring 

 ten lines. Schnai'ziella is rather smaller, 

 and differs in having the fringes of the hind 

 wings pale grey instead of pale ochrcmift. 

 Pllella is rarer, but may be looked for in the 

 north of England and Scotland ; it h^s dark 

 grey fringes to the hind wings. Mctaxella 

 is rather smaller still, and has the fringes 

 ochrems 



Larv.e. — Go to some ash-tree, an old 

 stump, or one with young shoots springing 

 from the bottom of the stem. See if the 

 terminal leaves of any of the stems present 

 a withered appearance, if so, examine it more 

 closely at the place where the new growth 

 joins the old, and if you see some excrement 

 protruding from a hole, rest assured it is 

 the work of the larva of Pt-plUa CurtiscUa, 

 which is a very pretty black and white moth. 

 The shoots containing the larvx had better 

 be placed in a pickle bottle and be corked 

 up, and the imagines should appear about 

 the end of June. 



