THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



9 



the old nests about and repairing them ; and any one who lives near a 

 rookery will derive great amusement from watching their operations through 

 a field-glass. In fact the ornithologist sees in many ways that the feathered 

 tribes are waking up. 



The conchologist will find January a good month for adding to his col- 

 lection of land and freshwater shells. At any rate he has no excuse for being 

 idle in mild weather. In order to prove my assertion, I find from my note- 

 book that one afternoon in January of last year, I found upwards of thirty 

 species and several varieties in a two hours ramble in the neighbourhood of 

 Cambridge. 



Although there is no reason why he should be idle, the entomologist does 

 not find much to do in January, except it be among the coleoptera. The 

 butterflies V. cardui, atalanta, io, polyckloros, urtica, antiopa, and c-album are 

 hybernating in various sheltered nooks ; and, by the way, it is wonderful 

 what a predilection the Yanessas have for coming into houses at the end of 

 autumn. Often on a sunny day in January we may see a tortoiseshell butter- 

 fly fluttering about the bedroom window as if impatient for the coming of 

 spring. 



Several moths are also passing the winter in a torpid state, as, for example, 

 T. satellitia, D. rubiginea, H. croceago, B. templi, C. vetusta, C. exolela, G. 

 libatrix, and most of the family Plulellida, so fond of getting into thatch. 



The moths of the genus Hybernia, and perhaps on a mild day at the end 

 of the month, a stray brimstone butterfly, are the only species to be obtained 

 in the active state in January. 



Not much can be done in January by the botanist, unless he collects 

 lichens, mosses, and such like. Yery few flowering plants are in bloom, the 

 daisies and white dead nettles are about the earliest to flower, and these with 

 one or two others are all we see in January. 

 Cambridge. 



SLUGS AND THEIR VARIETIES. 



By Dr. J. W. WILLIAMS, M.A. 

 Editor of "The Naturalists' Monthly." 

 Continued from Vol. VIII., page 191. 



Limax Flavus. — Taking the slugs in their recognised order of place, we 

 come now to speak of a large, flabby, and slimy creature known popularly 

 as the " cellar-slug/' and in scientific parlance as Limax flavus. Let us look 

 at one and examine him closely so that we may get his specific characteristics. 



