NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 199 
blossoms on the said bvishes being accompanied \vijth'*bunches of the purplish 
black berries. That semi-wild shrub the Tea-tree. (Zjw/w iMrl>aru»iyh^& a.\%o 
blossomed twice here during the very remarkable season we are now experiencing. 
Fyfiehi, Abingdon. W. II. Warner. 
Butterflies and Moths. — For the last month we have noticed r moSt 
extraordinary number of Red Admirals in our garden. They settle and feed on 
the rotten apples, four on one apple sometimes, and we have seen fourteen or 
fifteen all grouped together. They seem quite tame and hardly ever fly away, 
and will sometimes settle on our clothes. I wonder if others have noticed an 
extra quantity of these butterflies in other parts. We have also beert visited by 
the Humming-bird Hawk-moth, which we have not noticed here before. Two 
of these moths appear every day, and with their long proboscis suck out the honey 
from every bloom of geranium and lobelia ; they allow us to stand quite close to 
them, and while suspended over the flowers we can distinctly hear the humming 
noise made by the rapid vibration of their wings. 
Oakley, Brill. A. 1\I. G. 
Note on Aphides. — One evening last June I w.as walking about' my 
garden when I noticed a flourishing nipplewort i^Lapsana communis) which' Was 
plainly enough a plant in the wrong place, viz., among my potatoes. I was 
about to pull it up, but forbore because I saw the tender top part was covered 
with green aphides and that these were in a commotion. This was ilote- 
worthy, for aphides are not celebrated for devotion to exercise, saving sttctbrial. 
So I bent down for closer study. They numbered roughly about a hundred ; 
a few were winged. But they were perfectly normally motionless, and, thinking 
my eyes had deceived me, the nipplewort and its colony were again all but 
doomed. But once more the strange commotion took place and again I took 
fresh observations. In a short time one of the aphides gave a violent wriggle, 
and incontinently the whole body of them violently wriggled. They grasped 
the plant firmly with their legs and swung their little abdomens vehemently in 
horizontal plane for the space ot about hall a secomi. This occurred periodically 
with interspaces of rest of eight or ten seconds— one aphis (but not always the 
same one) apparently signalling and the others immediately obeying the signal. 
I tried to persuade myself that the winged aphides were captains or over- 
lookers of these gymnastics, or that other noticeably large ones were such, but 
further study failed to confirm this theory. The signal, command, example, or 
whatever it was, seemed to be given by any one, but was always promptly obeyed 
or followed. I watched this, to me, curious phenomenon for a few minutes, and 
was then called away and was not able to repeat my observations. 
S'toanton Morlcy, Easl Dereham. J. Lewtox Brain. 
Extraordinary Behaviour of a Cat.— As I was sitting on the lawn one 
day with my cat — a fine Persian — on my lap, I was startled by her making a 
frantic rush into the nearest bushes, and looking up I saw that the butcher harl 
just entered the garden. On being (piestioned, he told me that this particular 
cat always behaved in this manner on his appearance, although he had never 
done anything to frighten it, and the other cats took no notice of him. Oddly 
enough, a few days alter this occurrence, the Persian’s kitten was with me, and 
acted in precisely the same manner, except that she clung round my neck, hiding 
her face in abject terror. Can any of your readers quote any similar case as 
having come under their notice, and if so, will they explain it ? 
Mountfield Vicarage, Hawkhnrst. E. II. Crorts. 
Poisoning of Birds. — A few days ago I heard of a curious case of poison- 
ing of pet birds. A piece of rose bush, which was covered with aphis, was given 
to a bullfinch, and it died shortly after. .Some was afterwards given to a linnet — 
as it was not thought that that was the cause of the bullfinch’s death — with the 
same result. The birds picked the flies olf quite clean, and seemed very fond of 
them, and as both had been brought up by hand from the nest, it was thought that 
the birds, when wild, do not eat them. I should be glad to know if any reader 
has noticed a similar occurrence. 
A. J. P. 
