56 THE YOUNG NATURALIST. [Makch 



Scarbro' and Windermere, nor have I been able to find any one who 

 knows that it ever occurred at either plaoe. Mr. Stainton has gone 

 through a whole batch of letters from Mr. Wilkinson of Scarbro' in 

 1861, but there is no reference to this species in any of them. Mr. 

 Hodgkinson writes me : — " It (insignitella) has never been found in 

 Westmoreland. The grand district, Witherslack is only \\ miles in- 

 side the Lancashire boundary. Threlfall and I have worked it well, 

 so have I the Windermere district." A few months before his death, 

 Mr. Sang told me that he was not aware that insignitella occurred in 

 any other locality than in this neighbourhood. 



I have gone into this matter fully, because the difficulties I have 

 found in the investigation will increase greatly as time rolls on, and it 

 is not desirable that any species should stand on our lists without some 

 record of its occurrence. Mr. Stainton says : — " I wish all collectors 

 would take to heart the moral of your tale, and indicate the where and 

 the when and the by whom of all their specimens." 



In conclusion I venture to claim for my departed friend, the late 

 John Sang, that he was the first to take this species in Britain, and 

 that the examples recorded on 28th July, 1861, were the earliest of his 

 captures. 



I have to thank Mr. Stainton very much for the assistance he has 

 rendered me, my thanks are also due to Mr. Samuel Walker of York 

 for considerable help, and indeed every one to whom I have applied 

 has been most kind and anxious to render any assistance in their 

 power. 



Hartlepool, 17th February, 1890. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Vanessa Io in February. — As an instance of the unusual mildness 

 of the season, I had a live specimen brought to me to-day of Vanessa 

 Io (Peacock Butterfly). It was in tolerable condition, and was iound 

 resting on the ground in a public street in the outskirts of the town. 

 No doubt it must have hybernated near a bakehouse or some similar 

 abnormal locality. — B. Kendrick, 33, Colborne street, Warrington. 

 3rd February, 1890. 



Do any of the Sphingid^e Hybernate ? — In "The Field" for 

 January nth of the present year, a specimen of D. livomica is reported 

 as having been taken at Banbury, Oxfordshire, on November 24th. 



