MosLEY : Where aee the Insects ? 



85 



plains agree with each other pretty well, therefore I look upon this 

 Norwegian plant not as a variety of Bryum cirratum, but raise it 

 provisionally as a distinct species. 



Bryum Archangelicum, Br. and Sch. T have recently been enabled to 

 compare, through the kindness of the Eev. Chr. Kaurin, a small 

 original specimen of Angstroem's, from the Eoyal Museum, Stock- 

 holm, and I am now convinced that my Bryum tauriscoium (n. sp.) 

 (Bryum inclinatum plano-operculatum Breidler in Sched.) belongs to it. 

 The special characters for Bryum arcJiangdicam are the flat operculum, 

 the insignificant basilar membrane of the inner peristome, and the 

 yellowish red-like dull spores, which last measure 0*027 mm., and are 

 granulate. 



WHERE ARE THE INSECTS? 



By S. L. Mosley. 



This has been the cry of almost every Entomologist for the last two 

 or three years, and the cry has been well founded, and has met with 

 many answers. One person thinks that it is the wet spring, which 

 has killed off all the lepidopterous larvae ; another thinks it is the 

 mild winter; a third attributes it to the high winds, which have 

 blown the larvae from the trees; another thinks that it is due to the 

 prevalence of ichneumon flies, but Dr. Capron tells us that ichneumon 

 flies have been scarce too. Another thinks that there are too many 

 collectors, a suggestion which alas, is only too true, but in rather a 

 different sense from that in which the writer puts it. I dare say that 

 there are few readers of this journal, who have not heard of such a 

 thing as an insectivorous bird ; but did they ever consider what an 

 insectivorous bird means If it be true that a pair of blue tits, as 

 has been calculated, destroy 600 caterpillars a day, during the 

 breeding season ; if it be true that a flock of 300 rooks destroy 

 162,900 crane flies per day, as I myself have borne witness, what must 

 be the amount of destruction of insects carried on by the whole bird 

 population of this country ] Let us try and make an approximate 

 guess ! Previous to the passing of the Wild Birds' Protection Act, 

 I have seen a flock of starlings in one of the midland counties, which 

 contained from 50,000 to 100,000 ; take the lowest number and say 

 50,000 for the whole county, and the same for each of the -10 counties 

 of England — 2,000,000. Now each of the following birds are 



