168 



The Naturalist. 



COMPOSITE. 



Eupatorium cannalinum, L. Common in both counties. 



Ttmillago Fmfara, L. Abundant in botb counties. 



T. Petasites, L. (A) Cadnant, Dingle, &c. (C) near Nant Garth, &c. 



(To he continued.) 



Short Botes anb ^Jucries. 



Abukdance of Nightingales. — I do not kno^v whether the great 

 quantity of nightingales in the south this year has been generally noticed. 

 During Whitsuntide I was collecting lepidoptera in Chattenden Woods, 

 Kent, and found nightingales, not in twos or threes, but in scores. They 

 were everywhere. Every place containing sufficient trees and underwood 

 seemed to have its pair, and in the wood itself they were on all sides. At 

 night, standing still, half-a-dozen could be heard singing at one time all 

 round one. They sang equally well both night and day. I made 

 Higham head-quarters, and the railway station there is built in an old 

 chalk pit, the floor of the pit occupying perhaps a couple of acres. In 

 this pit were some half-dozen of the melodious songsters, representing 

 probably, as many pairs, and each having its own particular ground ; and 

 although through the centre of the pit ran two sets of rails, and in one 

 part of it four sets, and having the station, goods sheds, and several om 

 houses, and the trains running through every few minutes, the nightin 

 gales seemed as fearless and as mmch at home as in the heart of the wood.^ 

 Even when the trains were in the station, and the passengers passing i 

 and out, the birds went on singing without interruption. The pit isj 

 grown over with willows, sallows, hawthorns, &c., with a thick] 

 undergrowth of lower shrubs and plants, and seemed a perfect paradis 

 for birds ; the variet}^ of them was surprising. I was very glad to be toL 

 that no one ever thinks of molesting them, and this, no doubt, accoun 

 for their tameness and numbers. Of the lepidoptera taken, I ma; 

 probably have something to say another time. — Geo. T. Porritt, 

 Highroyd House, Huddersfield, May, 1880. 



Cuckoo near Huddersfield. — The first cuckoo reported to us 

 heard in this district was on Sunday, 2nd May, at Clayton West, by Mr. 

 Joseph Armitage, and at Fixby by Mr. J. G. Berry, who reports having 

 also seen the first swallow on same date. — Eds. Nat. 



Albino Weasel in Yorkshire. — I have just obtained possession, ill; 

 the flesh, of a pure white weasel (Mustela vulgaris), without speck, o: 

 even a coloured hair. It was trapped at Snydal, near Normanton.— * 

 Wm. Talbot, Wakefield, April 22nd. 



Chrysomela fulgida. — In answer to Mr. W. D. Roebuck, who asks oil 

 p. 141, vol. V. of the Naturalist, April, 1880, for the synonymy of 

 Chrysomela fulgida Steph., will you permit me to say that this extremely; 

 beautiful local beetle is known in Dr. Sharp's catalogue as Chi-ysomelai 

 graminis Linn., GylL, Suffr., dec. I use the term " local beetle " because 



