198 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



nothing more than a faint quack, quack, like that of a duckling, but not 

 nearly so loud. 



Though toads are less agile than frogs, yet they sometimes reach positions 

 inaccessable to the latter, as they can climb with ease, even a perpendicular 

 surface. When sugaring for moths, I have more than once seen a toad up 

 a tree taking moths from the sugar, and later on I have seen this toad lying 

 at the foot of the tree hopelessly " tight/' having taken too freely of the 

 alcoholic beverage. 



(To be continued.) 



DEILEPHILA GALII IN 1888. 



By J. E. ROBSON. 



This beautiful insect has always received great attention from collectors. 

 Bare enough to be highly valued, it has still been sufficiently abundant to 

 keep every one on the look out for it, in the hope of filling up the blank 

 above the name of the species in their cabinets. Almost every year we are 

 roused up by the occurrence in unusual numbers of one insect or another, 

 and we talk of the great Edusa year (1877), the great Antiopa year (1872), 

 the great Convolvuli year (1846), and so on; while Cardui and Gamma 

 appear more frequently, and being common do not attract much special 

 attention. There can be little doubt but these visitors are part of large 

 migratory swarms that reach our shores from the Continent. Sometimes 

 only a stray specimen or two from a swarm reaches our shores, such species 

 as Batica and Nerii having visited us in such small numbers that there has 

 always been doubt as to retaining them in our lists. This migratory ten- 

 dency in certain species and genera is now being better understood, and the 

 " blown over theory," once rejected with contempt, is now accepted as a 

 scientific fact that has explained many difficulties previously unsolved. The 

 present year may be known at the great Galii year, for though this species 

 has occurred in large numbers once or twice before, the swarm that has 

 visited us in 1888 has been unprecedentedly large. It appears to have 

 reached our shores on or about the 16 th July, only a stray specimen, the 

 advanced guard, being recorded previously. From that date to the first 

 week in August, we have notices of its occurrence in every part of the king- 

 dom, from Aberdeenshire in the north of Scotland, to the various counties on 

 the south coast of England. From Durham and Yorkshire on the east, to 

 Cumberland and Cheshire on the west. Thence it has crossed the Irish Sea, 

 and is recorded as occurring near Dublin. The number of actual records 

 probably does not include a tithe of the specimens caught, and there is no 



