385 
Annual Report for 1913 of the Zoologist. 
k 
at by Professor Carpenter in Ireland from direct experiments, 
that preventive smearing of the back in the fly season is a 
useless expenditure of money and labour. Squeezing out the 
grubs in the spring remains the treatment for this pest, though 
some prefer to apply an ointment to the warbles and thus to 
kill the grub inside. If, however, the latter plan be chosen, it 
has recently been found that equal parts of Archangel tar and 
paraffin oil are as effective, and less injurious to the hide, as 
the old composition of train-oil, sulphur and spirit of tar. 
In a case of great mortality among some young pheasants 
the birds were found to have in their crops large numbers of 
caterpillars which were sent for identification. They were 
recognised as those of the “Five-spot Burnet” moth. I find 
no record of these caterpillars being poisonous, but it is quite 
possible that they may be, for caterpillars of their type of 
colouration are usually unpalatable, and it is surprising that 
the pheasants did not instinctively reject them. Possibly the 
increasing domestication of pheasants is causing them to lose 
some of their native instincts. 
Fruit Pests. 
Advice has been given, at one time or another, with regard 
to almost all the usual fruit pests, but only a few points have 
arisen which are worthy of mention. 
Further cases have arisen in which banding against winter- 
moth has been ineffectual, either because the preparation used 
has been unsatisfactory, or because it has not been renewed 
when necessary. It is important to emphasise the fact that 
the considerable expense of banding the trees is largely wasted 
unless the preparation really forms an impassable barrier for 
the moth, is put on early enough, and is renewed if it becomes 
at all dry. 
There were an unusual number of complaints of the leopard 
moth in orchards. One correspondent attributed the attack to 
the props used in the orchard, which showed perforations. 
They were larch props, however, and the borings in them were 
probably the work of Sirex and not of the leopard moth, which 
does not attack coniferous trees. 
Some cases of attack on currant bushes by the rather local 
currant bud-moth ( Incurvaria capitella) were reported. An 
account of this insect will be found in the Report of the 
Zoologist for 1906. In one instance black currants were stated 
to be injured by an insect which, on examination, proved to 
be a capsid bug ( Plesiocoris ruficollis ), which I am not aware 
has been previously recorded as injurious. The leaves were 
badly blistered where the insect had been sucking. A 
case in which some cherry trees, though full of blossom, bore 
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