100 



The Naturalist. 



and agriculture, wMch have reclaimed the fens and marshes of central 

 England, we sigh for the loss of that Insecta Arcadia, no longer the 

 Elysium and happy hunting ground of the lepidopterist. With the 

 gradual disappearance of rare species from this country, due to causes 

 upon which I will be silent, the chances of obtaining parasites from 

 them are diminishing in a like ratio. And 1 trust that the time is not 

 far distant when the lepidopterist, instead of greeting an ichneumon 

 in his breeding-cage as a pest and an unwarrantable intruder, will 

 indulge the little stranger with a smell of the contents of his cyanide 

 bottle, and place him or her in his cabinet with justifiable gratification 

 at having increased both his collection and his store of knowledge, by 

 the addition of the parasite of the former, instead of having con- 

 signed it to the tender mercies of his boot-soles. 



Though rapid strides are being made towards the perfection and 

 completeness of Entomological Science, let all who profess themselves 

 sincere and energetic students of Nature's own handiwork, ever have 

 upon their lips the cry, "Excelsior ! Excelsior ! Higher, ever higher !'' 



Fork-tailed Petrel, near Beverley. — A specimen of the fork-tailed 

 petrel (P. LeecJiii), was picked up in a dying state, this week, in a field 

 near Riphingham (a small village a few miles distant), and is now in the 

 collection of Mr. John Stephenson, of Beverley. The simultaneous 

 appearance of two more on the Lincolnshire coast {Zoologist, Dec), — and 

 of one in Cornwall {Field, 26th Nov. ), suggested the probability of their 

 having all been blown across the Atlantic in the exceptionally heavy and 

 lengthened westerly gales of last week. — N. F. Dobree, Beverley. 



Procellaria Pelagica, at Bichmond. — A fine specimen of the stormy 

 petrel, or " Mother Gary's Chicken," was recently shot near to Gatherley 

 Castle, Bichmond, Yorks. This, the smallest of web-footed birds, is 

 very rarely found so far inland as this (more than forty miles), and must 

 have been compelled to seek shelter by reason of the exceptional heavy 

 weather experienced during the last few days, its usual habitat being the 

 mid-ocean, which it only leaves during the breeding season, viz. — June 

 and August. It breeds in considerable numbers on the western coasis 

 of Ireland and Scotland, also largely in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. 

 It is frequently noticed by sailors, far from land, " paddling its own 

 canoe " swiftly across the surface of the ocean, occasionally resting for a 

 moment on the foamy waves. They have been known to follow for days 

 the wake of a vessel, watching keenly for anything that might be thrown 



