NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
19 
fly-catcher August 28. The swallow was seen daily in considerable numbers 
up to the end of September, and after that only at intervals of some days till 
October 25. On the forenoon of the latter date the ground was covered with 
snow, but three or four swallows were observed flitting in front of the house for 
several hours. Their flight appeared feeble, and they were exceptionally tame, 
passing repeatedly within a yard of the t)l>server’s head, while in the garden paths. 
A single swallow appeared on October 28, which, after an hour or two, was 
joined by a second. .Since then they have entirely disappeared. 
Knaresborough. \V. 
Ichneumon Flies ? (p. 238). — I am sorry to disagree with Mr. Kirby 
about the ichneumon fly which Miss Pedder has described. I enclose a 
rough sketch of the insect that she captured, which I think will prove without 
a doubt that she is right in considering it an ichneumon fly and not a wasp. 
Westwood, in his Classification of Insects, vol. ii., p. 205, mentions the fact that 
the ichneumon fly carries along and buries a green caterpillar, in order to feed its 
larvae, and it is interesting to find an eye-witness who can corroborate this. 
Bath. Kessie Bryant. 
The drawing certainly 7 more resembles an ichneumon than a wasp ; but the 
veins of the wings are not sketched with sufficient accuracy to determine the 
species. Unless Miss Pedder brought in the identical specimen with her, and 
the sketch was taken from this, there can be no certainty that the insect was the 
same. Westwood does not say that any ichneumon stores caterpillars, he only 
says that Ray (an author of 250 years ago, when nomenclature wa.s in a chaotic 
state) saw an insect do so, which Kay called “ Vespa Ichneumon,” but which was 
probably .Animophila sahitlone, i.e., one of the solitary or burrowing wasps, 
which has similar habits to Euntenes coarctata, and which, too, more resembles an 
ichneumon than the latter. No ichneumon is known to store up caterpillars, &c., 
but merely to lay eggs in their bodies. The solitary and burrowing wasps store 
caterpillars, &c., in their nests, as food for their young. 
W. F. Kirby. 
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