59 
line of railway upon which such work is never done has 
removed one contingency to accident, and to that extent it 
is a safer line to travel upon. 
To these contingencies leading to accident might be added 
others, but the writer will now only refer to the one arising 
from imprudent management, in allowing slow and some- 
times even luggage trains to precede an express without 
sufficient margin of time. 
Viewing these contingencies together, as combining to 
bring about one result, viz. : accident, we must cease to won- 
der that they are so frequent, and begin to wonder that they 
so seldom occur. 
“ Contributions towards a knowledge of Anthophila 
(Hymenoptera Aculeata) in the Mersey Province,” by Mr. 
F. 0. Ruspini. Communicated by H. A. Hurst, Esq. 
The following list is very meagre, and contains only 56 of 
the 220 species of bees known to inhabit the British Isles. 
It simply professes to be the result of one season’s collecting 
by the author, mostly within the limits of a single parish in 
Cheshire. 
Family I. Andrenidse Leach. 
Sub-family I. Obtusilingues Westw. 
Genus Colletes Latr. 
1. G. cunicularia Linn. — hirta St. Farg. Discovered by 
Mr. Nicholas Cooke near Liverpool in 1869 ; appears in April. 
2. C. succincta Linn.=fodiens Curtis Brit. Ent. II. fol. 85. 
Abundant at Lindow, Cheshire, in August. 
3. C. Daviesana Kirby MSS. Lindow Common, August ; 
not so abundant as succincta. 
Sub-family II. Acutilingues Westw. 
Genus Sphecodes Latr. 
The females appear in spring, and both sexes in the autumn. 
1. S. gibbus Limi.=Melitta sphecoides Kirby. Plentiful 
