THE YOUNG NA TUBA LI ST. 



187 



proves unproductive try another. We have found one brown, rather dumpy, 

 pupa, which is, doubtless, the chrysalis of the not uncommon peppered moth 

 1 (Amp/iydasis betularia), and soon afterwards in the loose sods we find Tanio- 

 campa stablis. Before leaving the wood we will try these beech trees for 

 Demas coryli. The pupa is to be found in a slight web under moss at the 

 foot of the trees. However, luck is against us, and we search for it in vain. 

 Leaving the wood we will try these willow trees. Here we find several chry- 

 salides. They are mostly Tceniocampa instabilis, but we find a large red- 

 brown and glossy pupa, which we recognise as that of the Eyed-hawk moth 

 [Smerinthus ocellatus). 



Now we will go across yonder sandy common, where we see several butter- 

 flies moving about in the sunshine. "What was that ? Oh, I see ! a lizard, 

 and you have captured it with your butterfly net as it was running swiftly 

 away. It is the species known as Zootica vivipara, and its specific name is 

 given it because the female brings forth her young alive. Eather remarkable 

 this in a cold-blooded animal is it not? I account for the phenomenon in 

 this way : Zootica vivipara is extremely fond of basking in the sun, and it 

 will lay for hours on the hot sands if not disturbed. The females, when they 

 are full of eggs, are especially prone to this, and I very much suspect they do 

 so instinctively, and instead of burying their eggs in a dunghill as the viper 

 does, incubate them themselves (if the expression may be allowed) by lying 

 in the sun in the manner just alluded to. 



Among the very few plants which flower in October, mention must not be 

 omitted of the ivy, whose nectiferous blossoms are such a source of attraction 

 to the moths — a fact of which every lepidopterist is cognisant. If we visit 

 the bloom at dusk with a lantern, we shall find that a large proportion of the 

 macros consist of noctuina and our captures will very likely be such species 

 as the yellowish ochreous Orthosia macilenta, the grey 0. lota, the reddish 

 grey Anc/wcelis pistacina, the reddish brown A. litura, Cerastis vacinii, and 

 spadicea, the reddish ochreous Scopelosoma satellitia, Phlogophora me'iculosa, 

 Hadena protea, and the ubiquitous Plusia gamma. If we live in its localities 

 we may also perhaps see the pale orange or fulvous Horporina cioceago. 



Such geometrina as we see may include Ilimera pennaria, although we are 

 more likely to obtain it on the gas lamps, or at rest on oak trees. 



Cambridge. 



