being 29.442. The smallest difference between the gauge and the tables was two feet six inches minus, the wind being then S.S.W. and W., with a horizontal motion of 338, and the barometer being 30.279.

The barometer stood at its maximum, 30.587, on the 12th of October; and at its minimum, 28.762, on the 7th of January.

The horizontal motion of the wind was the greatest on the 18th of February, when it reached 1039 miles, or 43 miles an hour. Its direction was N.W., and the barometer 29.774. The horizontal motion was least on the 12th of February, when it was 89 miles, or 3 miles per hour. The direction was then N. and E., and the barometer 30.323.

[The Council of the Society, have obtained the permission of the Dock Committee, to publish the Liverpool Tidal Chart in their Volume.]

ON THE LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS OF THE DISTRICT AROUND LIVERPOOL, WITH SOME OF THE CAUSES OF THE ABUNDANCE OR SCARCITY OF INSECTS.

By Charles Stuart Gregson.

(READ MARCH 15тн, 1855.)

In entering upon this subject, I beg to remark that I have confined myself to a distance of ten or at most twelve miles from the Exchange. In doing so, I shall be compelled to omit many species which are unfortunately recorded as belonging to this district in Byerley's "Fauna of Liverpool," but which have never been taken within from twenty-three to thirty-five miles of Liverpool. I have also omitted several species which are stated to be "plentiful everywhere," "taken at New Brighton," "beyond New Ferry," &c., &c., but which have never been taken in the North of England. As a set-off against this seeming reduction in our "Fauna," I am able to add many species, especially scarce ones, to our list, and also to assign localities within the district to many species for which the Fauna would send us twenty or thirty miles.

In preparing the list which accompanies this paper, I have only one object in view, viz., to give as correct information as I possibly can respect ing every species which I have taken myself, or which I have known other

persons to have met with. For I hold that all works on natural history should speak only of well-ascertained facts.

I feel that I have a dry subject to treat upon, and shall therefore endeavour to be as brief as possible.

Without entering into a description of the district, (which is well known to the members of the Historic Society), I may say I consider that ten or at most twelve miles is as far as we can possibly go for natural history purposes, without interfering with the districts which properly belong to our neighbours. I can refer with certainty to every species in the list as having been taken within the limits which I have named, except one species which is only named to induce those who have opportunity to try to find it within our bounds, it having been found a very short distance without the limits. We have in Britain sixty-five species of butterflies, and my list contains thirty-five species, or about sixty per cent. of those found in England.

Of moths we have Sphingidæ, fourteen species against thirty-four species in Britain, which is a great proportion, when we take into consideration the fact that the genus "Trochilium" has nine species in it, only one of which has been taken in this district. Of "Bombycide" we have forty-six species against ninety-three in the British list, and in Noctuide, or true night-flying moths, we have 173 against 295 species recorded as British. This shows a result unexpected by the most sanguine, and proves that the district is very rich, and has been well worked up, though of course it is not exhausted. Of Pyralida we have about twenty-six species against sixty-three, a greater proportion than might be expected, as many of this family are confined to mountains, limestone, and chalk districts. In Crambida, a group belonging to the Pyralida, we have about thirty against about seventy species, and in Geometrada we have about 147 species against 263, again about fifty per cent. Of Tortricida we have about 140 species against about 280, or fifty per cent of those in Doubleday's Catalogue.

I am now working upon the "Teneida," and hope shortly to produce a list of them, which will be useful to all who follow me in the study of this difficult section of Lepidoptera.

It is a common saying, that "where birds frequent there are insects," and this is correct as far as it goes. But an entomologist on finding a locality where birds are scarce, or where they only come to breed, or where

they are destroyed by foolish farmers as fast as they come, says, this is the place for insects, and straightway fits up his net, and daubs his sugar on the trees.

The birds are destroyed villages, so the insects

Cheshire is a very heaven for an entomologist. without mercy. Sparrows are scarce in many ravage the crops, when they themselves ought to have filled the crops of the birds. The sparrows, chaffinches, greenfinches, and bullfinches are hunted down, and all but exterminated; even the beautiful blue tit, perhaps the most useful bird we have in a garden, is shot in Cheshire by men who do not know their friends. They see him hanging and peeping into every crevice; around every twig he goes, and every time he bores into a bud he brings out an egg, a larva, or a pupa, and is punished, nay destroyed, whilst doing his best to destroy the vermin which nature gives for his food.

I have visited several villages in this district where sparrow heads are paid for by foolish overseers, and have invariably found farmers grumbling about "t' blight it' apples," "crumbled plumbs," "cherry trees wi'out leeaves," blotched pears," &c., and blaming all sorts of thunder-storms, close or sultry days, bewitched trees, &c., but never once blaming themselves for destroying the things sent by nature to prevent the fruits of the earth from being eaten up.

I have visited land infested with cockchaffers' larvæ, and have heard men who ought to know better, say, that "between th' crows and th' grubs th' crops 'er spoilt," and priding themselves that they have at last got rid of one of "th' varmin-th' crows." I have seen patches of turnips, half an acre each, with one or more grubs in every plant, and have seen the crows and starlings shot down or chased away from places not yet much injured, when, if let alone, they would have cured the disorder as they devoured the larvæ, and the week following have heard that "th' corner where them there crows wad goo' hes clean gone, every turmit rotten."

I have spent much time trying to convince my prejudiced friends that the crows and other birds were their best friends, that they were the enemy nature had sent to eat up and destroy the grubs and insects, that one crow did more good than two men could do, and that one sparrow destroyed more larva in one day than several men could.

To convince a farmer that sparrows are useful and valuable to him in

Q

the face of his pease rooted up, is not easy; but to convince him that chaffinches and bullfinches are prizable on his estate, whilst the buds and blossoms of his cherry and gooseberry trees are strewed on the ground, is a much more difficult task; and to convince him that crows are worth paying for on his land, with the fact that sundry potatoes which he has lately planted are rooted up before his eyes, is a Herculean task, especially when we take into consideration his antecedents, and when we consider how he loves to do as his "fayther" and his "gronfayther" did before him. Yet this is the task which the entomologist who loves his neighbour has to undertake and carry out. To shew the agriculturist that in consideration of about four or five weeks' food, half in spring and half when the crops are ripe for the sickle, his feathered friends will keep down the natural enemies of his crops, and ensure him an average return. To shew him that every bird on his estate is money in his pocket, is a difficult undertaking, but is nevertheless the fact.

The most I can get the farmers to grant is that robins and throstles are innocent things because they dont eat corn, they will not admit that they are useful, but being innocent they let them live.

I will now give you the food of these birds, in order to shew how useful they are to the agriculturist, and how destructive to the food of the entomologist's cabinet.

In winter the granivorous birds feed upon the seeds of grass and weeds of every description, thus saving the farmer much labour; they also obtain berries and other wild fruits, and a few stray grains of corn around stacks and barn doors.

In spring they obtain food from buds and young shoots of trees and shrubs, and sometimes get a good breakfast of pea, turnip, or cabbage seed, with mustard or cress as condiment, and shortly afterwards have a young brood to provide with soft food, and the larvæ, now just beginning to ravage the trees and grasses, supply them with the food they want, and without which the young cannot live.

"See that sparrow i'th apple tree," says the farmer, "he's biting 'th bud off." Look at the bud: it is a crooked gnarled thing, with a small hole in it-empty! Look at the next bud; in it you find a small grub eating the very centre of the shoot, and thus stopping all growth. This is