290 



Azotes 011 Mammals and Birds. 



more pronounced) and were not prolonged past them or carried 

 down the back at all. 



The brown variety ' was of a dirty yellowish white ground 

 colour, clouded with deep brown, the markings being thickest 

 on the back and almost absent below the spiracles nearly to the 

 claspers, which v/ere again brown. The spiracles were enclosed 

 in a darker blotch, and the brown cloudings on the sides were 

 so clustered as to suggest to the eye the usual oblique stripes of 

 the Hawkmoth caterpillars, but only indistinctly. The horn in 

 this brown variety was all black, as also were the legs. The 

 face was yellowish brown, with the same black stripes as the 

 green variety. The largest of the five caterpillars was about 

 /\Y 2 inches in length, almost as large as Acherontia atropos. 



All these larvas have now ' gone down ' into the soil to 

 pupate, and I am anxiously awaiting the emergence of the 

 perfect insects. From what I can hear this is the first record of 

 the larvae of Sphinx convolvuli having been taken in Yorkshire. 

 I might say that the caterpillars have been shown to Mr. W. E. 

 Brady, of Barnsley, a well-known entonrologist, who expresses 

 his opinion that the larvae certainly are those of S. convolvuli, and 

 Mr. John Harrison, F.E.S., of Barnsley, is also of the same 

 opinion. igoi Sept. 18. 



NOTES on MAMMALS and BIRDS. 



Gamekeeper's Hoard at Kirk Smeaton. — At Kirk Smeaton on 

 Saturday last, the 15th June, in Brock o' Dale, a gamekeeper's hoard was 

 suspended from the branches of a tree, and contained the following - : — 

 Sixteen Magpies ( Pica pica J, 3 Crows ( Corvns corone J, a Sparrow Hawk 

 ( Accipiter nisus), 3 Weasels ( Putorins nivalis), and 8 Stoats ( P. ennineus ). 

 Nearly all of these appeared to have been recently killed, and were 

 hung by the neck on a cord. — T. Sheppard, The Museum, Hull, 18th 

 June, 1901. 



Hedgehog in Disgrace: Dunsby Wood, Line. S.— On the nth of 



June, w T hile botanising in Dunsby Wood, Div. 16, I found a Hedgehog 

 {Erinaceus europceus) sucking Pheasant's eggs ; I wondered at first what it 

 was so intent upon, and on moving it aside found it had made sad work with 

 the contents of a Pheasant's nest, having sucked 4 eggs out of 9. The rest 

 would no doubt share the same fate. The nest was in the position usually 

 chosen by Pheasants, and close to the edge of the wood. — S. C. Stow, 

 Court Leys, Brandon, Grantham, 21st June 1901. 



Squirrel and Little Birds. — ' Did you know that little birds come 

 together and chatter at a Squirrel, as they do at a Cuckoo? Twice during 

 the past week there has been a Squirrel in the sycamore tree near the 

 summer-house. A mob of little birds chattered at it on both occasions, just 

 as if they knew it liked eating- eggs, and most probably nestlings.' — Extract 

 from a letter to E. A. W. -Peacock from Miss Mabel Peacock, Dunstan 

 House, Kirton-in-Lindsey, 17th June 1901. 



Naturalist, 



