blue colour, and entirely without spots. The nest was placed about a foot above the surface of a marsh, in a bush which was growing out of it.

11. A missel thrush's egg, which I took about four years ago, along with three other's, the same is much pointed at the smaller end, is of a beautiful dark blue, unstained by a single mark, save at the large end, where a zone of thickly plaited underthe-shell-like blotches encircle it. It is a beautiful egg, but I am sorry to say that since I took it the deep blue has faded very much.

12. A light blue or dirty whitish blue specimen of a Richardson's skua from Orkney.

13. An almost white specimen of a great northern diver's egg.

14. A kestrel's egg almost white, or more closely resembling a very light-coloured sparrowhawk's.

I could mention a few more, but the above are the most peculiar. The blue specimens of chaffinch's eggs are comparatively common, as well as others I have mentioned in this list, but some, I flatter myself, are not so, such as the common fowl's egg, the great northern divers, Richardson's skua's, tree pipit's, &c., as mentioned above.-J. A. Harvie Brown.

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Anniversary Meeting, January 22, 1866.-F. P. PASCOE, Esq., President, in the

chair.

An Abstract of the Treasurer's Accounts for 1865 was read by Mr. Wilkinson, one of the Auditors, and showed a balance in favour of the Society of £78 11s. 10d.

The following gentlemen were elected to form the Council for 1866 (namely): Sir John Lubbock, Messrs. Bates, Dunning, McLachlan, Moore, Pascoe, W. W. Saunders, Edwin Shepherd, A. F. Sheppard, S. Stevens, Alfred R. Wallace, J. J. Weir, and Prof. Westwood.

The following Officers for 1866 were afterwards elected (namely): — President, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., &c.; Treasurer, Mr. S. Stevens; Secretaries, Messrs. Edwin Shepherd and Dunning; Librarian, Mr. Janson.

The President announced that one of the Prizes offered for Essays of sufficient merit on Economic Entomology had been awarded to Alexander Wallace, Esq., M.D., M.R.C.P., of Beverley House, Colchester, for his Memoir " On Ailanthiculture."

The President then read the annual Address on the present position and future prospects of the Society, &c.

A vote of thanks to Mr. Pascoe for his conduct in the chair was carried by acclamation, and he was requested to allow his Address to be published in the Journal of Proceedings. The vote was appropriately acknowledged, and the request acceded to.

A vote of thanks to the other Officers for 1865 was also carried, and acknowledged by Mr. S. Stevens and Mr. Dunning.

February 5, 1866-Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart., F.R.S, &c., President, in the

Chair.

The President thanked the Society for having elected him to occupy the Chair, and nominated as his Vice-Presidents, Messrs. W. W. Saunders, Westwood and Pascoe.

Prize Essays.

The Prize awarded by the Council for an Essay "On Ailanthiculture" was presented by the President to the author, Dr. Alexander Wallace; and it was announced that the Council renewed the offer of last year, and would give Two Prizes of the value of Five Guineas each to the authors of Essays or Memoirs, of sufficient merit and drawn up from personal observation, on the anatomy, econoiny, or habits of any insect or group of insects which is in any way especially serviceable or obnoxious to mankind. The Essays should be illustrated by figures of the insects in their different states, and (if the species be noxious) must show the results of actual experiments made for the prevention of their attacks or the destruction of the insects themselves. On some former occasions the Council has selected a definite subject, as e.g., the Coccus of the Pine Apple, the larva of Agrotis Segetum (the large caterpillar of the turnip), &c., but on the present occasion the selection is left to the candidates themselves, provided only that the subject be one fairly belonging to the Economic branch of Entomology. The Essays must be sent to the Secretary at No. 12, Bedford Row, indorsed with mottoes, on or before the 30th November, 1856, when they will be referred to a Committee to decide upon their merits; each must be accompanied by a sealed letter indorsed with the motto adopted by its author, and inclosing his name and address. The Prize Essays shall be the property of, and will be published by, the Society.

Donations to the Library.

The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the donors:-'The Transactions of the Entomological Society of New South Wales,' Vol. i., Part 4; presented by the Society. 'The Entomologist,' vol. ii.; by the Editor, E. Newman, Esq. 'On the Fossil Insects from Illinois, the Miamia and Hemeristia,' by Samuel H. Scudder; by the Author. Exotic Butterflies,' Part 57, by W. C. Hewitson; by W. W. Saunders, Esq. A Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Devon and Cornwall,' by J.J. Reading, Part III.; by the Author. Proceedings of the Royal Society,' Nos. 79 and 80; by the Society. The Entomologist's Annual,' for 1866; by H. T. Stainton, Esq. 'Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung,' 1866, Nos. 1-3; by the Entomological Society of Stettin. The Zoologist,' for February; by the Editor. The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine' for February; by the Editors.

Election of Honorary Members.

6

MM. Guérin-Mèneville, of Paris, and Boheman, of Stockholm, were severally ballotted for and elected Honorary Members.

Exhibitions, &c.

Mr. Dorville sent for exhibition a male specimen of Sterrha sacraria, captured by him at Alphington, near Exeter, at sugar, in August last (see Ent. Mo. Mag. ii. 115);

a gigantic Vanessa Cardui, measuring 2 inches and 10 lines in expanse, and having a black spot in the pale band at the anal angle of the anterior wings; a variety of Argynnis Selene, wanting many of the ordinary black markings of the upper side, and with the under side of the hind wings very abnormal; a female Satyrus Tithonus having an additional ocellated spot on the anterior wings; a female Agrotis segetum, with the anterior wings nearly black; and a variety of Triphæna orbona with mottled anterior wings, and with the posterior wings very pale yellow.

Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a male of Papilio Semperi, from the Philippines, with black wings and a bright scarlet body; the body of the female being grey.

Prof. Westwood exhibited a pair of the dog-tick, Ixodes plumbeus, which he had kept without food in a glass tube for twelve months, having taken them away with him from the Meeting of this Society held on the 6th February, 1865, (see Proceedings,' 1865, p. 82). Shortly afterwards numbers of young ones were observed in the died; the tube however was now again thronged with young in The female parent was no longer living.

tube, but they soon

the hexapod state. Prof. Westwood also exhibited a larva with long filaments at the sides of the body, which he at first thought to be Neuropterous (Sialis), and afterwards Lepidopterous (Hydrocampa), but which from examination of De Geer's figures he believed to be Dipterous, and probably the larva of Tipula replicata. It was found in damp moss in Derbyshire, and there was no doubt that the filaments were branchial and connected with respiration.

The President remarked upon the apparent absence or scarcity of trachea in these branchial apparatus.

The President exhibited magnified coloured drawings of two larvæ, and requested information to what insects they belonged. Except that one was Lepidopterous, and the other probably Coleopterous, no light was thrown upon the subject.

Mr. W. W. Saunders exhibited a box full of Heliconia, "all taken together in the same locality" at Cayenne, including forms which have been described under seven or eight specific names; the examination of these specimens bad convinced him that all of them were referable to a single species, H. Melpomene, or at most to two species; the structure and general form were constant, whilst the colour varied enormously, so that if his conclusion were correct colour must henceforth be considered as of small specific value amongst butterflies.

Mr. Bates said that he had found nearly the whole of the same forms on the Amazous, and had come to the conclusion that there were three species, Heliconia Melpomene, H. Thelxiope, and H. Vesta, but that the majority were merely intermediate varieties. In their typical states those three were perfectly distinct, did not interbreed, and no connecting links were found. For a distance of 1800 miles up the Amazons, Heliconias occurred everywhere, but the intermediate varieties were found in only one locality, on the hilly mainland of or adjoining Guyana, at the other extremity of which was Cayenne. The three species occurred in the forests, but the varieties did not. He had endeavoured to investigate the question whether the species interbred, and whether the varities were the result, and had satisfied himself that the varieties were not hybrids. He thought that the insects were unstable, vacillating species; H. Melpomene, Thelxiope, and Vesta had become segregated in the alluvial plains, and might now be considered as species, though in bis opinion they themselves were the descendants of some one prior unstable form which was their common

ancestor. He conceived that the whole phenomena, both of the formation or development of the different species and the existence of the intermediate varieties, were explicable on the broad principle that an insect, in disseminating itself over a wide area, adjusts or accommodates itself to local conditions.

Mr. Saunders remarked that the Heliconia exhibited were all from the same locality, and therefore presumably had been subjected to like conditions.

Mr. Bates admitted that many different varieties were found in one spot; but as local variation was not the only form of variation, such collocated varieties might be produced by causes similar to those which produced the remarkable diversity between the offspring of some of our domestic animals.

Dr. Alex. Wallace said that the course which the discussion had taken led him to enquire whether Bombyx Ricini and Bombyx Cynthia were distinct species; the two insects interbred, and the hybrids were fertile and bred on for generations, not only amongst themselves, but with either of the parent forms. And yet B. Ricini was from Bengal and fed on Ricinus communis; B. Cynthia from China and fed on Ailanthus glandulosa; they differed in the egg, in the colour of the larvæ, in the shape of the cocoon, in the quality of the silk, in the imago, and in their habits.

B. Ricini produced six or seven generations in the year, and was too fertile for this country, since it could not be prevented from hatching in winter when no food for the larvæ was obtainable; whilst B. Cynthia, though last year it had produced four generations in France, in an ordinary season produced only two, and perhaps a single generation would be the rule in this climate.

Mr. J. J. Weir enquired on which plant the hybrids fed? Dr. Wallace replied, on both or either indifferently.

Mr. F. Smith said that the remarks he had made at a previous Meeting, (see 'Proceedings,' 1865, p. 130), as to the tapping noise alleged to be made by “deathwatches," had induced Mr. Henry Doubleday to send him an account which shewed that his (Mr. Smith's) doubt was, as to Anobium at all events, unfounded. Mr. Doubleday, under date of Epping, 31st Dec. 1865, wrote as follows:

"I cannot speak positively about the Atropos, but I am strongly inclined to believe that it is the insect which produces the continuous faint ticking sound so frequently heard in the spring. It seems almost impossible that such a delicate little creature should be able to produce any sound whatever, but I have always found it in places from which the ticking sound appeared to proceed. I have often thought it very wonderful that the pied woodpecker can, by striking the branch of a tree with its beak, produce a sound which may be heard for half a mile; we could not produce a similar sound by striking the tree with a stick or anything else. I can speak positively with regard to the Anobium, and I assure you that this little beetle produces the loud ticking sound, by raising itself upon its legs as high as it cau, and then striking the head and under part of the thorax against the substance upon which it is standing, generally about five or six times in rapid succession; and it always chooses a substance which produces the most sound. It is evidently a call-note from one individual to another, as you very rarely hear one rap without its being immediately answered by another. I have repeatedly kept one in a card pill-box, and if I imitated the sound, by tapping anything with a pointed pencil or something of that kind, the Anobium would instantly answer me. This insect is common in our house, but it is not very easy to obtain them, as, when you have found out by their rapping where they

are, they drop the instant you move anything near them. If all is well I will endeavour to obtain you some bye-and-bye, and send them to you alive."

Dr. Alexr. Wallace mentioned, that on recently repairing the roof of an old church at Colchester, which had been attacked by Anobium, it was found that the damage was chiefly confined to the south side, the other sides being but slightly affected; this was the case both with the nave and aisles. Could it be that the beetles selected the south side from its greater warmth?

Mr. McLachlan enquired if the same description of wood was used throughout? Dr. Wallace believed so; all that he saw was oak.

Prof. Westwood said, if it were oak the depredator was doubtless Anobium tessellatum; there might be other reasons than the warmth which took the beetles to the south side; the prevalence of particular winds, or greater exposure to rain, might make the wood more liable to decay, or more attractive and palatable to the insects.

Mr. Stainton announced with regret the recent death of Senator von Heyden, of Frankfort, from an accidental fall, in the 73rd year of his age.

Mr. Stainton also announced the arrival of Mr. Wollaston at the Cape de Verdes: the examination of two small islands had already yielded 150 species of Coleoptera.

Prof. Westwood mentioned that in the Stett. Ent. Zeit. just published was a figure of a gynandromorphous Dytiscus (male on the right side, female on the left), very much resembling that described and figured by him in the third vol. of the 'Transactions,' p. 203, pl. xi. Mr. McLachlan added that, in the same publication, a gynandromorphous Argynnis Paphia was mentioned, the right side of which was female and the left side male, and which had this additional peculiarity that the female portion was of the form known as var. Valesina. Prof. Westwood said that a similar gynandromorphous variety had been recorded in the publications of one of the Belgian societies.

Papers read.

Mr. Baly communicated the concluding portion of his paper entitled "New Genera and Species of Gallerucida"; containing descriptions of four new species of the genus Cerotoma.

Mr. Hewitson communicated the concluding portion of his paper entitled "Descriptions of New Species of Hesperida"; comprising seventeen additional species of the genus Hesperia.-J. W. D.

Colias Edusa in Ireland.-In September last, when taking a walk round the Hill of Howth, on the north side of Dublin Bay, I was both surprised and pleased to see Colias Edusa, formerly familiar to me in the Isle of Wight. I caught one specimen on Howth, just to make sure of the species, and a few days afterwards again met with this beautiful butterfly near Malahide, a little further north, on the Dublin coast.A. G. More; December, 1865.

Polyommatus Hippothoe and Limenitis Camilla in Ireland.-Some years since, when botanizing in the county of Kerry, at the south-eastern extremity of Castlemaine Harbour, where extensive marshes stretch towards Milltown, Mr. Andrews noticed a swift-flying insect, which he had attempted to capture: from its size and brilliancy of colour he was satisfied that it could be none other but the large copper butterfly