42
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
the Seven-spotted Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata) was noticed in
numbers on the potatoes both as adults and larvae, and the latter
when placed in a box with eggs of the Doryphora ate them
ravenously. A small Hemipteron, a green Nemorcoris (?) was also
seen wandering about among the larvae, and may have been
sucking the body juices, as several species do in America. The
above facts are mainly taken from a very interesting report to
the Board of Agriculture by Prof. F. V. Theobald (Journal, vol.
viii., pp. 147-154). Under the terms of the "Colorado Beetle
Order, 1877," if Doryphora is found wandering around anywhere,
notice must be at once given to a constable (!), but please also
send the errant beetles to the Essex Museum of Natural
History.—Ed.
Brown-tail Moth and Birds.—On the Essex coast, at
St. Osyth, we found (in August last) a specimen of this moth
(Porthesia chrysorrhoea) empaled upon the spine of a furze bush,
probably by the butcher-bird or red-backed shrike (Lanius
collurio). The caterpillars of the brown-tail moth have again been
very common on the coast, and they certainly are "protected
animals," with their bright colours and tufts of hairs; the cuckoo
is said to be the only bird that will eat them. I had imagined
that the perfect moth was likewise distasteful to birds. But we
noticed that a pair of sparrows, who had set up housekeeping in
the roof of the Martello Tower at St. Osyth, constantly fed their
young on the moths, which they took off the hedges surrounding
the tower. On one occasion as we watched, the cock bird
brought in nine specimens in a very short time, and he stuck to
his work from morn till eve. I have since found, on reference
to Prof. Poulton's Colours of Animals, that this curious exception
(the larva being a protected form and the perfect insect an
edible one) has been noticed in the allied Porthesia auriflua
(the gold-tail moth). The Professor is inclined to think that
P. auriflua is a mimicker of the white-satin moth, Stilpnotia salicis,
which he has proved experimentally to be unpalatable to
insectivorous animals.—W. Cole, Buckhurst Hill.
Bats (?) and Birds Catching Moths.—At the meet-
ing of the Club, on November 8th, I exhibited a number
of wings of crepuscular and night-flying moths, which had
been found on the floor of the verandah facing the garden, at