The moth flies in July and August and seems to be partial to woods. It is very local, but occurs not uncommonly in the New Forest, Hampshire, and in Oxfordshire and Berkshire beech woods; also found in Buckinghamshire, the Eastern Counties, Kent, Sussex, Dorsetshire, Devon, Lancashire (once), Yorkshire (very local), and North Wales (once). In Scotland {224} it appears to be more widely spread, but has not been noted in Ireland. THE PURPLE CLAY (_Noctua brunnea_). The fore wings of this moth (Plate 113, Figs. 3, 4) range in colour from purplish brown to reddish brown, or pale reddish brown; some of the darker forms are suffused with greyish, and the central area is occasionally ochreous tinged. There is also variation in the markings, especially the reniform stigma which is usually more or less filled in with ochreous or whitish tint, but not infrequently it is merely outlined in one of these colours, and the centre is then dark grey brown, sometimes enclosing a whitish or ochreous crescent. These remarks are of general application, but refer to a long series I obtained in North Devon. The caterpillar (Plate 112, Fig. 2) is reddish brown with a yellowish tinge and with black dots and ochreous markings. It feeds on bilberry, wood-rush (_Luzula_), various low plants, bramble, sallow, and in the spring it attacks the buds and young leaves of the birch saplings, etc. August to May. The moth flies in June and July, and is often common in woods over almost the whole of the British Isles, including the Hebrides and the Orkneys. The range abroad extends to Amurland. THE INGRAILED CLAY (_Noctua primulæ_). This species, long known as _festiva_, but for which Esper's earlier name _primulæ_ will have to be adopted, is exceedingly variable. Specimens of the more or less typical form and also of the forms known as _conflua_ and _thulei_ are portrayed on Plate 113. The fore wings range in colour from pale ochreous to chestnut brown, and from grey to smoky grey brown. The cross lines are distinct in some specimens, but in others are hardly visible; the discal cell is often no darker than the {225} general colour, but sometimes there is a reddish square spot in place of the usual black one; the reniform and orbicular marks may be only faintly outlined, and the latter sometimes cannot be traced; the brownish band-like shade between the outer and submarginal lines is frequently only indicated by a short dash from the front margin, and even this is occasionally absent.