476 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Maeoh 23. 
same month next ensuing. Chickens, we observe, are 
specially required, in addition to adult birds in tho 
Spanish, Dorking, and Shanghae, varieties, the remaining 
classes being open to birds of all ages. The prize-list 
stands much in the usual form, but we must confess 
ourselves surprised to find that the premiums for Geese, 
Ducks, and Turkeys, of such limited amount in com¬ 
parison with those offered for fowls; for, while many 
of the latter have A3, A1 10s, and 15s for the first, 
second, and third, respectively, none of these “ farmer’s” 
birds obtained more than AT for a first, and 10s for a 
second prize. At a meeting of so strictly an agricultural 
character, the contrary policy, we should have imagined, 
would have been preferable. 
The rules are clear and precise, and under the same 
able management of the director, Mr. Gray, by whom 
the arrangements of the Plymouth Show were sol ad¬ 
mirably conducted, we venture to anticipate equal 
success for the Bath meeting. 
Thk meeting of the Entomological Society for March 
was held on the 6th inst., and was fully attended, with 
the President, E. Newman, Esq., P.L.S., in the chair. 
The Secretary announced, with a view of obviating 
I some of the inconveniences which had been experienced 
in former years, that the Council had resolved thus 
early to announce the days for the two annual excur¬ 
sions, namely, on the 10th of June to Pembrey, near 
Tunbridge, Kent, and on the 8th of July to Micklehara, 
both excellent grounds for collecting, and of easy access 
by railroad. Tickets, taken before the 2nd of May, are 
to be charged half-a-crown; after which time the price 
will be raised. 
Mr. Westwood called attention to a periodical work, 
the publication of which had been recently commenced, 
and which, from an examination which he had made of 
it, appeared to he a clumsy compilation from “ Stephens’s 
Manual; ” the figures were also worthless. 
Mr. Curtis exhibited a series of larvae of various 
insects recently captured by himself on the continent, 
including those of a supposed species of Oplionus, one | 
of the ground-beetles, and of Stcnoloppus vaporarionmi, j 
another of the same tribe; those of Cistela atra and 
Prostomis mandibularis, the latter a curious beetle, the ■ 
larvae bearing a strong resemblance to that of Pyrocliroa, 
and found under the bark of decaying Chesnut-trees; | 
the larvae of a supposed Ileloptorus, a clavicorn water- 
beetle, and that of a Pyralis, which is very destructive 
in boxes of preserved insects, spinning its web over the 
specimens, which it gnaws to pieces. Mr. Curtis also ; 
called attention to the curious fact, that many of the 
rare varieties of butterflies exhibited at previous meet¬ 
ings of the Society had been taken in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Ipswich and Colchester; he likewise mentioned 
several other similar instances in which the same 
locality had produced other varieties; and Mr. Samuel 
Stevens exhibited a fine variety of the White Admiral 
butterfly, Limenitis sibilea, also from the neighbourhood 
j of Colchester. The latter gentleman also exhibited speci¬ 
mens of a species of Burnet Motli, recently captured for the | 
first time in Galway by Mr. Milner. It is the Antliro- 
cera minos, and is distinguished by the large patch of 
crimson on the fore wings, not broken up into smaller 
spots. Likewise a number of beautiful Lepidoptera, 
from the north of China, recently sent home by Mr. 
Fortune, who is again engaged in Natural History and 
botanical pursuits in the flowery empire. (We take this 
opportunity to mention, that since the Meeting, we 
have received, from St. Petersburg!!, a memoir on the 
Lepidoptera of the neighbourhood of Pekin, sent home 
from the Russian Mission, which has been established 
for several years past in that city.) 
Mr. J. Stevens also exhibited a number of beautiful 
butterflies and moths, collected at Port Natal by Dr. I 
Guenzius; and also a specimen of the magnificent Mar¬ 
id io Gypris, belonging to the Society (forwarded from 
Bogota by Mr. Stephens), which, having become satu¬ 
rated with grease, had been entrusted to him to be 
cleaned. He had accordingly immersed itfor three days 
in camphine, and had then covered it with pounded 
magnesia, and it had by this means become perfectly 
restored to its former splendour, being, in fact, the most 
beautiful of all hitherto known butterflies. 
Mr. Frederick Morre exhibited a quantity of cells of 
clay, manufactured by some Indian species of Mason 
Bee or wasp, collected at Dacca; the greater number 
contained a pupa case, and in one of the cases a beau¬ 
tiful parasitic Ghrysis had been found; whilst, in another, 
which did not contain a case, was found the pupa of a 
species of Vespidee, the parent of which had probably 
taken possession of the cell already built by the real 
architect. 
Mr. Desvignes exhibited a beautiful variety of Melitceu 
Dictynna; and Mr. Foxerot’t a quantity of whalebone 
shavings, infested to a considerable extent by the larva; 
of one of the Tineidce, which reside in portable cases, 
probably Tinea pellionella; as well as the larvae and 
perfect insects of Boletophagus crenatus, a small beetle 
found in the Boleti, growing upon beech trees in Perth¬ 
shire, where it had been first discovered by Mr. Fox- 
croft, two years ago. 
Mr. Dale forwarded a notice of the capture of Hemer- 
obius diptenis, a new British species, at Langport, in 
Dorsetshire. This species had been previously described 
by Dr. Burmeister, in his Handbuch, ii., p. 1)73. 
The President read a notice from Mr. Eawnsley, of 
Moreton Bay, New Holland, in which he expressed his 
willingness to collect objects of Natural History and 
Botany upon reasonable terms. This is an excellent 
opportunity, of which we trust our botanical as well as 
entomological friends will avail themselves. A similar 
statement was made from Dr. Reicliardt, the curator of 
the Geological department of the Royal Museum at 
Copenhagen, who is about to proceed to M iuas Geraes, 
and other parts of Central America, and who offers to 
collect insects, &c., on remarkably low terms. Parties 
subscribing for three years, at A 12 per annum, are to 
receive a large amount of objects in return. 
A paper was also read from Dr. Reicliardt (a transla- 
