91 
a partial second brood ; and it appeared to me that those speci¬ 
mens emerging in the autumn produced more aberrations than those 
lying over until the spring. There is one autumnal form in the 
female, which has a row of dots running through the underwings, 
producing almost a pencil line. This form I did not observe in those 
that emerged in the spring. 
There is another series of nine specimens in the same drawer, which 
I bred from larvae given me by the Rev. C. R. N. Burrows, who told 
me they were sent to him by Mr. Iiowett, of York, and were the 
product of selected best forms of fa sc i at a for three generations, but 
the result can hardly be called satisfactory as showing any great 
tendency to heredity, for although some of them are strongly marked 
forms, they appear to have entirely lost their fasciata form, and to be 
rather inclined towards cbnraci, while four out of the nine specimens 
are typical. 
The majority of specimens in my own cabinet are from the Harrison 
strain, and besides showing strongly marked radiata and fasciata, I 
think I am right in saying that some correspond entirely with eboraci, 
while others are clearly intermediate forms, showing some very pretty 
results. The whole series was started from eighteen larvae which 
were kindly sent to me. The parents I did not see; but as it is 
shown here they must have been a considerably mixed race. I bred 
. them in once or twice, but not in the numbers one might have 
expected, the race soon becoming very weak, and the specimens 
produced small. I was unable to cross them with wild .S', bthricipeda, 
as they invariably came out before any wild ones were to be seen out- 
of-doors ; otherwise I might have kept the strain longer; but they 
finally refused to pair, and the breed was lost. With these, as with 
the Lincolnshire race, some of my darkest specimens came from those 
that emerged in August, producing the partial second brood, notably 
the two specimens with dark thoraces and chequered fringes. These 
were the only two I bred of this form. I was not able to continue the 
race long enough to produce some of the darkest forms sometimes 
bred, with entirely black fringes; but I have had sufficient experience 
to show that with careful selection great results could be obtained. 
In one of my broods there was a curious instance of reversion. I had 
been pairing true radiata and the offspring all followed the parents 
with the exception of three specimens, which produced three of the 
finest fasciata 1 have. I was at no time able to get a pairing of 
fasciata. With my experience of the London form of S. lubricipeda, 
which has extended for a good many years, I have never seen any¬ 
thing that could be called really an aberration, and the three speci¬ 
mens labelled London district are the most strongly marked I have 
ever taken, all inclining rather towards fasciata than anything 
else. I have also bred the species from Southend, -and this 
brood produced no dark forms whatever, and the only specimen at all 
remarkable is an almost spotless one, the hindwings being quite free 
from spots. There are a few more specimens worthy of note and 
these came from the north-west of Ireland. They are not at all 
strongly marked, and the male is rather yellow. My series, however, 
is a very short one, but I am told in a long series the yellowness of 
the males is very striking. 
1 believe there are still some entomologists that hold the opinion 
