Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/358

1524 length of its bill ; but its eyes or its legs I could not see. It took no more notice of my approach than a butterfly would have done ; but it flew from flower to flower, dip- ping its slender bill, which was no thicker than a fine sewing needle, into the cup of each blossom. It appeared not to settle on the flowers, but supported itself in the air with its fluttering wings and spreading tail while it extracted the honey." — Derby Mercury.

[There is in this paragraph cause for much meditation : we have a writer competent to give a veiy correct description of an insect (the common and beautiful Macroglossa stellatarum), yet so profoundly ignorant of Natural History, as to take it for a bird ! — I never recollect a parallel instance of the combination of correct observation with ab- sence of information. — E.N.]

Blackberries attractive to Moths. — I was much surprised the other evening when at Hainault Forest, to find numbers of moths sucking these berries, their attention seemed quite divided between them and the sugar, those that had been partly eat by the birds appeared to be the most attractive. I mentioned the circumstance to a practical col- lector the following day, when he said he had observed them so engaged the week pre- vious. Mr. Shepherd also noticed the circumstance in the New Forest. — S. Stevens; 38, King Street, Covent Garden, October 13th, 1846.

''To expel Mites, &c. from Cabinets of Insects, and to exclude them. (see Zool.'' 1438). — For the former purpose ; invert the drawer, uncovered, over a sheet of blotting paper, or a cloth, moistened with liquid naptha for one hour or more. Steam, or fumes of prussic acid, cautiously applied, might be still more certain, but there may be special objections to each. Naptha is safe, injures no specimen, and requires no apparatus. At all times, take care that the drawers close accurately, and keep them in a dry and airy place; let them be supplied with plenty of camphor, in niches all round ; and keep a few small globules of quicksilver loose in each drawer. Go over all the drawers at stated periods in the year, replenishing them with camphor, and if there be any sus- picious appearances, employing the fumigation above-named. Place no specimen, ob- tained from other collections, in your drawers, without leaving it first for some time in the fumigating box. — A.H. H[aliday]; September 18th, 1846.

Feeling of Insects. — Believing myself the only one who has mentioned the circum- stance, of having pierced a moth on a tree without its exhibiting any signs of anima- tion, I cannot but consider myself alluded to by Mr. Wollaston, under the comprehen- sive name of Mr. John Smith, in his enquiry, " Do insects feel, or do they not ? " (Zool. 1434): and therefore, may be allowed to observe, that what I advanced (Zool. 1343) was not intended to decide the question which he has propounded: but only to show that the struggles of impaled insects cannot proceed from pain ; and of this I feel morally certain. It is quite impossible to experiment on the millions which Mr. Wollaston says, and truly says, are passed over; an account of the instances I I have tried would far exceed the limits to which I feel an article, in such a varied publication, ought to extend. My observations related chiefly to Lepidoptera, and of these I took the extremes, a diurnal and nocturnal insect ; but not from any fear that the intermediate ones would disprove my conclusions. Mr. Wollaston seems to have been unfortunate in his attempts to impale insects when at rest, without disturbing their slumbers ; and therefore it is, perhaps, useless to say that I have done so, not one, two, three, or a dozen times, but a dozen times a dozen ; and that instead of remain- ing quiescent for two minutes (the maximum Mr. Wollaston has ever heard of) many of ihcm have remained so for twice as many hours. I have just impaled an example