THE YOUXG NATURALIST. 



103 



rally black. There is a corresponding dark 

 form of the female, and I purpose calling this 

 variet yfuscata. On the 13th we tried our locality 

 for Cymatophora flavicomis, and found three, and 

 one P, pilosaria just drying its wings. After 

 dark we tried sugar, but only a solitary speci- 

 men of C. vaccinii put in an appearance, and one 

 L.multistrigaria, which we took from the grass. 

 We found several cocoons of the large sawfly, 

 Tricossoma betulz, attached to the birch stems. 

 — S. L. Mosley. 



During a stroll on the Cheshire Sandhills 

 yesterday (March 7), I took the following. 

 All the beetles I found sunning themselves on 

 the bare sandhills ; — ■ 



Nyssia zonaria. 

 Notiophilus aquaticus. 

 Aphodius inquinatus. 

 ,, conspurcatus. 

 prodromus. 

 scybalarius. 

 ,, fimitarius. 

 iEgialia arenaria. 

 Sitones griseus. 

 Otiorhynchus ovatus. 

 Hypera nigrirostris. 

 Grypidius equiseti (1). 

 John W. Ellis, 34, Paddington, Liverpool. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Dear Sir, — The practice of high setting, 

 which was advised in No. 16, is found by most 

 to be the best way, and, in my opinion, it is 

 quite time low setting was given up. My own 

 way of labelling butterflies has always seemed 

 to me to be a good way, so that I now write 

 to you about it, to see if it is ever used by 

 other Entomologists. At the head of the 

 column I put the family. The name of each 

 butterfly I place at the left hand side, and the 

 date and locality of its capture on the other. 

 This shows all concerning the butterfly at a 

 glance, and although it takes up more room 

 than other ways, still I have always found it 

 suit me best. — Believe me, your well-wisher, 



E. G. Duff. 

 Cheltenham, March 4th, 1880. 



NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE 

 NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB 



ANE 



ARCH^OLOGIAL SOCIETY. 



We have received the Annual report of the 

 above Society for 1879, from which we see 

 that it is in good working order, and in a 

 prosperous condition. Eight excursions have 

 been made to various places of interest, but 

 the archaelogical spirit seems to have pre- 

 dominated ; in fact, the naturl history portion 

 seems to be confined to the indefatigable 

 President and Secretary — the Rev. T. W. 

 Daltry, and one or two others. Several 

 papers are printed which have been read dur- 

 ing the year, the most interesting to us being 

 one by Dr. M'Aldowie, on " Design in Birds' 

 Nests," and one on " Pond Life," by Mr. 

 T. S. Wilkins. In a paper by Mr. Yates, on 

 "Birds and their Nests," he includes the 

 White's Thrush among the " permanent resi- 

 dents," which should, we think, only be called 

 an accidental visitor of very rare occurrence. 

 He says the Wheatear occasionally stays in 

 Staffordshire all the year ; we never before 

 heard of this bird staying here through the 

 winter, and think Mr. Yates must have made 

 some mistake, as he describes the egg as blue, 

 like those of the Whinchat, Hedgesparrow, 

 and Redstart. We do not consider it advis- 

 able to describe the three Willow Wrens as 

 " Titmice," inasmuch as that term is very 

 generally applied to another group of birds 

 called by Mr. Yates " Tom Tits." The Club 

 seems to be honoured by having over seventy 

 ladies amongst its members, and we sincerely 

 hope that many, if not all, take an active in- 

 terest in natural history ; one at least — Mrs. 

 Watkins — has distinguished herself by draw- 

 ing diagrams to illustrate her husband's 

 paper. Altogether the report is very interest- 

 ing, and occupies 100 pages of small type. 



Societies like this render a service to science 

 in publishing their doings, this should always 

 be done either in separate form or in some of 

 the periodicals. 



