430 
naturalist’s calendar. 
and in the crevices of the old bark'of many other trees, the Balaea fragilis (11) 
seeks shelter. The shelter is about a quarter of an inch long, slender and taper¬ 
ing to rather a sharp point, and of a yellowish horn colour. On dry banks, and 
under stones in hilly places, is the Helix caperata; (12) it is nearly half an inch 
in diameter, and a quarter of an inch high, of a dull yellowish white colour, with 
brown bands, and rather a handsome shell. 
On the Mat-Fly. —A very mistaken notion is prevalent in most places with 
regard to the insect so well known to fishermen by the name of the May-Fly. 
Most people imagine that the cadis, which is to be found at the bottom and 
sides of every streamlet, is the May Fly in an imperfect or undeveloped state. 
Many fly-fishers, as well as other persons, are not aware of the incorrectness of 
the supposition. The grub from which the May-fly is formed, is to be found 
under the weeds which grow at the bottom of rivers, buried in a fine green sand, 
and presenting in every respect an accurate resemblance, both in the head and 
tail, to the perfect fly, the growth of the wings being indicated by small pointed 
members like the wing-cases on the back of an earwig. The cadis does not pre¬ 
sent either in its head or tail any similarity to the body of the May-fly, nor is 
there the .slightest appearance of the growth of the wings. Numbers of cadis 
are frequently found in places where it is notorious that the May-fly never rises 
at all * 
Eggs of Moorgame —I was surprised the other day, on examining the nests 
of some moorgame, to find so great a difference in the eggs, some of which are 
much lighter in colour, and also very differently marked than others. Can this 
be owing to the newness of the eggs ? I am inclined to think that the eggs grow 
browner as they become older, more particularly so from having noticed in the 
nest of a Golden Plover, which contained four eggs, that every egg was of a dif¬ 
ferent shade. Perhaps some of your zoological correspondents can give a little 
information on this point. It perhaps may not be generally known that a 
Red Grouse generally lays eight eggs. One person to whom I spoke said he had 
seen many nests, and nearly all of them contained eight eggs. What number 
the Black Grouse lays, I cannot tell, Montagu says from eight to fourteeu eggs. 
Notwithstanding the lateness of the season, the Swallows and Cuckoos arrived 
at nearly the same time as last year, the Swallow in particular, I saw within a 
day of the time I noticed it last year, viz.: the 20th of April.— Mancuniensis. 
Mason Wasps. —During this month several species of the solitary wasps and 
bees excavate holes in which to deposit their eggs. The mouth of these holes 
they afterwards close up, to preserve their offspring secure from the attacks of 
enemies until the following spring, when they open the holes and come out in 
the perfect winged state. This business is not, however, confined to September, 
but in July and August these processes are carried on, as may be seen by an at¬ 
tentive observer. In July last, a species of the mason wasp, Odynerus, was ob 
served by us to have excavated a hole in the hard mortar of some stones which 
were thrown together in Chatsworth gardens. The hole was so small as scarcely 
to allow her to turn in it. She must have been at amazing pains to give it a 
smooth finish. It is usually thought these wasps deposit two eggs. We did not 
perceive any in the present instance, but there were five green caterpillars alive, 
