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The Naturalist. 



them in spirits (four parts metliylated spirit to one of water) seems 

 to be the best known, and I have found that one difficulty may be 

 overcome by inserting white cotton wadding behind the specimens, 

 and so forcing them against the front side of the tube. Another 

 capital thing would be to make a series of well-executed coloured 

 drawings of the specimens while alive, as the colours change after 

 they have been in spirits some time. 



What is wanted is some member in each local society to take up 

 one of these divisions, and at the meetings of the Union compare 

 notes and specimens, and hold " family consultations." Or if the 

 lepidopterists would take up some division or a portion of a division, 

 and work it out, in addition to the lepidoptera, the work of the Union 

 would get on much better. Entomologists who have sons and 

 daughters of a sufficient age should encourage them to strike out in 

 new lines of investigation ; if this is not done, it generally happens 

 that the children, finding the lepidoptera so exhausted, and having no 

 encouragement to go beyond, all interest is lost, and at the death of 

 the father the collection has to be sold. 



Primrose Hill, Huddersfield. 



NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF BINGLEY. 



By E. p. p. Butterfield. 



In the Naturalist for February last, Mr. Yarley introduces to your 

 readers a few " Notes on the Natural History of Bingley." As the 

 subject is of special interest to me, having " worked " the district 

 which covers his field of observations, as far as my limited oppor- 

 tunities would allow, a few additional remarks may not be un- 

 acceptable to your readers. In the first place, he met with the 

 willow warbler in full song on the 12th April ; this date coincides 

 with its arrival in this neighbourhood, but it is, however, singular 

 that we did not hear its song until the 19th. The grey wagtail 

 breeds almost annually in the Goit Stock valley near the waterfall ; 

 so does the dipper and the kingfisher. Starlings are to be met with 

 in flocks, more or less, throughout summer, and would make it not 

 improbable that some of the young at least may not breed until their 

 second year. It is not the rockdove, but the ringdove, which breeds 

 at the old ruins near the seat of Walter Dunlop, Esq. The nearest 

 place where the stockdove breeds is in the Goit Stock valley. The jay 

 has almost become extinct by the relentless persecution to which it is 



