lxxx Journal of Proceedings.
near Maldon, although it may have done so some years since." Mr.
Cole added that the value of Mr. Varley's specimens lay in the fact
that, as the pupa were obtained in their natural habitat, the insects
must have bred there, and were not the result of an importation by
some enthusiastic lepidopterist.
Mr. English remarked that between the years 1848 and 1850, the late
Mr. Doubleday turned out a number of Papilio Machaon in parts of the
Epping Forest district, as well as Callimorpha dominula, but the butterfly
did not establish itself.
The Secretary read some extracts from a letter received from Mr. R. M.
Christy, concerning the earlier stages of P. Machaon, which he had
observed in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire. "It is strange that the eggs
are more easily procured than the caterpillars. They are little shiny
white, semi-transparent globules, and are deposited singly on the leaves
of the Peucedanum palustre, or Hog's Fennel, growing so abundantly in
the fens. When about a quarter of an inch long the caterpillar is almost
black, with a large white spot on its back about the centre of its body 
It is also very much bigger at one end than the other. At its various
moults it gradually becomes more and more like the brightly striped,
black and green, full-grown caterpillar."
A "List of the Hymenomycetal Fungi of Epping Forest," was com-
municated by Dr. M. C. Cooke [Transactions, ii. 181]. The list
enumerated 199 species.
Mr. English remarked that his own researches would enable him to
largely increase the list, and he promised to prepare a catalogue of those
species he had himself gathered in the Forest districts, and send it to the
Secretary.
Mr. J. Travis, of Saffron Walden; communicated the following records
of a few rare birds caught in Essex, received by him recently for preser-
vation :—
(1) Bed-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus hyperboreus), taken October
14th, 1881, on the lake at Debden Hall, near Saffron Walden. An old
male in winter plumage.
(2) Eared Grebe (Podiceps auritus), taken at the same time and place
after an hour's chase on the lake. A young male bird in poor condition.
Its stomach contained a rounded and flattened mass of feathers—presum-
ably its own—mixed with remains of small fish.
(3) Cormorant (Phalacrocorax Carbo). Two young specimens taken
by Mr. H. Webb, Streetly Hall, near Wickham, on September 7th.
(4) Buffon's Skua (Lestris Buffonii). A specimen was picked up in an
extremely emaciated condition near Wimbish, about the beginning of
November, 1881. [From a subsequent letter from Mr. Travis.]
The thanks of the Society were returned to the authors, and the usual
conversazione concluded the Meeting.