114 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



for instance, the Hedge Sparrow. As 

 a rule only one egg should be taken I 

 from each nest, except when the eggs | 

 are very rare, and then perhaps two j 

 should be taken, but certainly not j 

 more, ab if we take the whole contents 

 of the nest, and shoot rare birds when 

 we see them, we cannot expect them 

 to become any commoner. I do not 

 in any way condemn the shooting of 

 rare birds for collections, but only say j 

 that if we take all their eggs, and 

 shoot the birds, we cannot expect 

 them to increase. I would also say 

 that I do not wish to discourage you 

 from reading and studying books upon | 

 birds and eggs, do so by all means, 

 but to tell what eggs are, by com- 

 parisons with the plates, however well 

 they may be done, is often a difficult 

 matter, and the reason is a very 

 simple one, viz : that eggs, even some- 

 times in the same nest, vary to such 

 an extent that when placed side by 1 

 side, you would not sometimes recog- ! 

 nise them as those of the same bird, 

 much less as those out of the same 

 nest ; and this variableness in eggs is j 

 not confined to one or two of the eggs 

 in a nest, but it not unfrequently I 

 happens that the whole contents of a \ 

 nest vary so much, that they closely j 

 approach in colour and markings the | 

 eggs of some other bird, and unless j 

 the old birds are seen and recognised, j 

 you may think you have got a prize, | 

 when really the eggs are only common j 

 ones. The nest often goes far to solve 

 the difficulty, but this, ab regards 

 materials cannot be always altogether 



relied on, for many birds use the same, 

 or nearly the same materials. 



EXCHANGES. 



Desiderata. — Pairs of Machaon, Cra- 

 taegi, Sinapis, Hyale, Sybilla, Cinxia, Cri- 

 brum, Paniscus, Davus, Lucina, and 

 numerous Bombyces and Noctuae. 



Duplicates. — Numerous pairs : J. Oven- 

 den, Frindsbury-road, Strood, Kent. 



Duplicates. — Tritici, Augur, Festiva, 

 Carpophaga, Arbuti, Rumicis, Geryon, Z. 

 Trifolii, Suffumata, and var. Piceata. — John 

 E. Robson, Bellerby Terrace, West Hartle- 

 pool. 



Petasitis alba will soon be in flower here' 

 and I should be glad to send flowers to any- 

 one who will pay postage, — S. L. Mosley, 

 Primrose-hill, Huddersfield. 



Last week Mr. Attye's address was 

 erroneously put "Liverpool" instead of 

 Leominster. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Parasites.— In reply to the query in 

 Young Naturalist, p. 106, some years ago I 

 collected a large quantity of pupae of 

 Vanessa urticw near Menai Bridge, North 

 Wales, and from them some thousands of a 

 minute ichneumon emerged. A few small 

 holes were made through the pupa case for 

 egress, and large numbers of the parasites 

 came out of each hole. — G. T. Porritt. 



V. Atalanta at Light. — About the 

 middle of last September, as I came 

 over Rochester Bridge, a patch of scarlet 

 on the inside of the framework of one 

 of the lamps arrested my attention. Upon 

 examination it proved to be a perfect specimen 

 of V. Atalanta. This was about 10 o'clock 

 at night, and the lamp had been alight some 

 hours, and I am able positively to assert 

 it was not there when the lamps were lit. — 

 J. Ovenden, Strood, Kent. 



