Seated at my desk this evening, with a copy of Vol. I. of Edwards' Butterflies of North America before me, I am forcibly reminded, as I turn to the magnificent plate designated as “Argynnis I.,” of an experience of my boyhood. My home, from 1858 to the fall of 1863, was in the village of Salem, N. C., famous as one of the most successful of the settlements made by the Moravian Brethren under the lead of the good Count Zinzendorf, and well known throughout the South as the seat of an excellent seminary for young ladies. The war broke out and the hopes cherished of sending me to the North to be educated were in conseqnence disappointed. I was left to pursue my studies under a tutor, and to roam the neighborhood of afternoons in quest of insects, of which I gathered a large collection. Unfortunately my stock of books upon entomology was limited, and aside from an original copy of Say's work, of no especial value. My determination of species was therefore very imperfect.

Editor Can. Ent.:

Dear Sir,—I send you herewith certain notes of observations made 50 years ago, by the eminent naturalist, Philip H, Gosse, F. R. S., &c., on Butterflies of Newfoundland.

I received a letter from Mr. Gosse, in the spring of 1882, from which I extract as follows:

“I began the study of Insects in 1832, when I was a clerk in a mercantile house at Carbonear, Newfoundland. For more than three years I pursued the study with great ardor and industry, making careful drawings of nearly every species I found, of all orders, often magnified. These drawings, in a small 4to book, I still possess, and for minute care I think they are in nowise inferior to any that I have executed in later years.

1834, July 25.—A friend, A. E., caught for me an example of the Black Swallowtail, in torn condition, on Carbonear Island, a high rocky islet, about a mile in length, lying off the mouth of the harbor, uninhabited, uncultivated, partly covered with bushes—visited occasionally for summer picnics. This is my first cabinet specimen; but I had possessed an old rubbed and patched specimen which had been captured in the same locality several years before I began to collect.

In the Reports of Dr. Harris and Prof. Riley and some other State Entomologists, the structural characters of the genus Agrotis are not given, and the term is evidently loosely applied to cover certain Noctuidæ known as “cut-worms.” In Dr. Harris's Report, as I have shown, the moth Hadena devastatrix (the Agrotis devastator of Brace) is considered to be an Agrotis, while Agrotis Clandestina, which has the structural characters of Agrotis, is referred to the old Linnean gents Noctua, now without standing in our lists. The three genera to which the “cut-worms” are referable, Agrotis, Hadena and Mamestra, are separated in the Preface to my list of the Noctuidæ, p. 3. April, 1874, by their characters.

In my Check List (1876) I proposed three new generic names, Conservula, Oxylos and Leucobrephos. I have since discarded Oxylos and given the character which separates Conservula from Trigonophora Led. There remains Leucobrephos, which, owing to the kindness of Mr. Butler, who has examined Walker's types for me, I now describe as follows:

Leucobrephos Grote; Type: Anarta Brephoides Walk.

Male antennæ with longer pectinations than Brephos, and broader. Palpi concealed by the beard-like hair, more thickly hirsute than in Brephos. Eyes narrower, smooth, naked. The neuration differs by veins 3 and 4 of primaries arising from a common foot-stalk. On secondaries veins 3 and 4 arise from a long stem, diverging near the margin.

I was much interested in an article in Vol. xiii. of the Canadian Entomologist, by Mr. W. H. Edwards, entitled. “Is Limenitis arthemis double-brooded?” My own observations previous to the time of reading the article were confirmatory of Mr. Edwards' theory; but I wished to learn more of this interesting species before hazarding any remarks concerning its habits.

I have never reared or attempted to rear arthemis from the egg, but have one specimen obtained from a full-fed larva found on the 2nd July, 1877. It went into chrysalis on the 3rd, and the imago appeared on the 16th, I have seen fresh looking specimens on 1st July, when enjoying, with other citizens, “Dominion Day” in the country. Later than this I have not seen a fresh specimen, excepting the example before recorded.