Short Notes and Queries. 



201 



With regard to the first named species it is somewhat curious that it 

 has not wintered with us (I mean in this locaHty) since the remarkably- 

 severe winter of 1878 and 1879. If my memory serves me right, I believe 

 Gilbert White somewhere states that the spotted fly-catcher is the last 

 bird to arrive in its spring migration. This is, however, not now the 

 case (if indeed it ever were), at least in this district ; the nightjar being 

 the latest migrant, arriving about the time when H. velleda first makes 

 its appearance, upon which it feeds, and which must form, judging from 

 the quantity of wings strewn about, a most important item in its bill of 

 fare. This insect swarms in Bingley Wood. — E. P. P. Butterfield. 



Capture of a Badger in Cleveland. — On May 20th, Mr. John P. 

 Petch, of Liverton Lodge, near Saltburn, caught a fine female badger, 

 not far from his residence. It stood 11^ inches high, and weighed 19| 

 pounds. It is now in the possession of Mr. A. E. Pease, of Pinching- 

 thorpe House, near Guisborough. Mr, Petch informs me that it is 17 

 years since he caught one near the same place. — W. Gregson, 



Curious Egg of Sandmartin. — On Whit-Monday, a friend of mine 

 took a sandmartin's nest, and one of the eggs had a patch of silver on one 

 side ; it looked as if it had been gilt with quicksilver, very bright and of a 

 metallic appearance. I thought it would be evanescent, but it is per- 

 manent. , Can any of our oologists explain the cause ? — Corn crakes are 

 numerous here this year.— C. C. Hanson. 



Entomological Notes. — I spent Whitsuntide this year at Wicken Fen, 

 in Cambridgeshire. Meliana flammea was common, but most of the 

 specimens I took were much wasted, and the species had evidently been 

 out some time. The swallow-tailed butterfly Papilio Machaon was also 

 plentiful enough, and on W^hit-Monday, May 29th, was flying freely 

 even in a little wood about half-a-mile from the Fen. It was certainly 

 novel to see Machaon in such a situation. I found the eggs easily by 

 searching the Peucedanum palustre in the Fen. Arctia urticm was just 

 getting out, and ISimyra venosa was not uncommon, but diflicult to catch. 

 I am now breeding Pterophoriis lienigianus, from larvse received from 

 Norwich ; and have recently added to my collection DianthoRcia Barrettii, 

 from Howth ; Nola centonalis, froln Deal ; Eupithecia togata, from Scot- 

 land ; Oncocera henella, from Deal ; Ephestia pinguis, from York ; and 

 Cryptohlahes histriga, from. K.ent. — Geo. T. Porritt. 



Clivinia fossor, Linn., &c. — In voL iii p. 25, of the Naturalist, Mr. 

 Crowther gave us the benefit of his knowledge of the Yorkshire 

 geographical distribution of C. fossor, and asks other entomologists who 

 have taken the species to do the same. I may say that I took two 

 specimens of this little beetle at Frizing-Hall, near here, on the 12th of 

 April last, in just such a situation as described by Mr. Crowther, i.e., 

 amongst ^' decaying rubbish " on the bank of the canal. When I first 

 picked them up they appeared to be in a torpid state, but on coming in 



