34 
(6 out of 27) is somewhat less than from that district (19 out of 59), 
and they emerged just 20 days later than these. One is a nice dark 
grey specimen with orbicular and reniform encircled with white. We 
then climbed a hill overlooking the Kyle, and had a good view of the birch 
woods below. The trees were thinly covered with leaves and in places 
were almost as brown and bare as in winter. While we were looking, a 
party of about twenty black-headed gulls ( Larus ridibundus ) dew over 
and made their way to the barest part of the wood. Here they 
dropped to a level with the topmost twigs, and then each in turn kept 
checking its flight, hovering for a moment and appearing as if about 
to settle, then Hying on to another tree, where it would repeat the 
same manoeuvre. 
It Avas quite evident they were obtaining food, and our curiosity 
Avas aroused. When we had climbed down to the Avood, Ave Avere in no 
doubt as to the nature of the attraction. Every birch was coA r ered 
with thousands and thousands of fullgroAAm larvae of Hybernia pro- 
gemmaria of every shade from pale to darkest broAvn. Threads of matted 
silk hung from tree to tree, and tangled groups of hanging larvae clung 
to our clothes as Ave AA r alked under the branches. Amongst the host of 
larvae Avere a few of H. defoliaria, Cheirnatobia boreata and C. brumata. 
Curiously enough, I find no record for the county of any of the first 
three of these. Barrett states that II. progeinmaria is scarce in 
Aberdeenshire, for II. defoliaria he gives Argyle and Perth, and for C. 
boreata, Boss and Moray as the Northern limit. 
For the next feAv days Ave saw parties of gulls feeding in this Avay, 
sometimes only tAvo together, usually four or five, but on July 3rd we 
saw quite fifty or sixty together, steadily AA r orking from end to end of 
the wood. 
A day or two later there Avas scarcely one, and, on looking at the 
trees, I found that almost all the A r ast multitude of larvne had vanished. 
The trees, many without a single leaf, and only the leaf stalks to shoAV 
where they had been, alone bore testimony to their recent presence. 
These Avoods appear to have few moths in them : Cymatophora duplaris, 
Platypteryx lacertinaria (neAv, very locally Clydesdale, Argyle and Ross) 
and Coremia pectinataria were captured. In the afternoon we met with 
more success in the Avood, An-garbh-chnoc. Here we saAV Ephyra 
pendidaria (neAV to county, Ross and Moray), Coremia montanata , 
Fidonia piniaria, Venusia cambrica (new : Argyle), Melanippe tristata 
(the usual broAvn and Avhite Scottish form), M. subtristata (a clear black 
and Avhite form), Thera variata (neAv: Moray in east to Hebrides in 
Avest), Eupithecia lariciata (? neAv), E. satyrata, and several Cidaria 
corylata (neAv : Moray and W. Ross). 
The last species Avas past its best. The variety albocrenata 
was far commoner than at Rannoch, and I should think about 
30% Avere of this form instead of about 5%. The majority of 
the corylata were of the broken-barred form, but a good many 
exhibit a complete central band. In one specimen, a fine female, 
the costal half only is present, and very clearly defined. I have not 
seen any description of a similar specimen. The series of var. albo¬ 
crenata —I include under this term, those specimens in which the 
central hand is more or less frosted with white scales, and not limited 
by black outer and inner lines—show a complete parallelism Avith the 
ordinary forms. In most the central band is interrupted, but in a 
