The smaller moorland and mountain form, var. _conflua_, Treitschke, and in the vulgar tongue The Lesser Ingrailed, varies on somewhat similar lines. (Plate 113, Figs. 8, 9.) Var. _thulei_, Staudinger, also varies greatly in colour and in marking. Some specimens are dark reddish brown, or occasionally smoky brown; others are pale reddish brown, grey brown, reddish grey, or grey; the pale cross lines are generally distinct, in the darker specimens especially. This form, which is peculiar to the Shetland Isles, is shown on Plate 113, Figs. 10, 11. In the foregoing remarks reference has been made only to the general trend of variation; many other forms of aberration in this species might be mentioned if space permitted. The caterpillar is pale or dark reddish or olive brown inclining to pinkish between the rings; the lines are yellowish, the central paler edged with brown, and the outer ones edged with blackish marks; oblique darker dashes on the sides; spiracles black, ochreous ringed, with a pale stripe below them; head pale brown marked with darker. It feeds on primrose, bilberry, dock, sallow, hawthorn, bramble, etc. August to May. (Plate 112, Fig. 1.) The moth flies in June, but specimens of a second generation have been obtained, in confinement, from August to October. The species in one form or another occurs in woods, on moorlands, etc., over the whole of the British Isles. THE BARRED CHESTNUT (_Noctua dahlii_). The sexes of this species are depicted on Plate 114. It will be noted that the female (Fig. 2) is darker in colour than the {226} male (Fig. 1). The sexual colour difference holds good generally, but there are exceptions and the male may sometimes be dark, like the female; or the latter sex may occasionally assume a reddish coloration. As a rule the reniform mark is most distinct in the female. A form occurring in Ireland with the fore wings dark sepia colour and the reniform mark clear whitish has been named var. _perfusca_, Kane. The caterpillar varies in the colour of the back through various shades of ochreous and brown to dark reddish brown, and this is always in strong contrast with the colour of the lower parts; the lines are pale, and the outer ones on the back are edged with black dashes; spots and spiracles black; head pale brown. It feeds on dock, plantain, etc., and in the spring on young sallow leaves. In confinement will become full grown before Christmas, but normally it feeds from September to May. The moth is out in late July and in August. It is found on heaths, moorlands, and in woods; it is not uncommon in some parts of the Midlands, and is found in Cheshire and northwards to Cumberland. It also occurs in Herefordshire, Pembrokeshire; in the south and east of England it is not frequent, but has been taken in South Oxfordshire, Berkshire (Newbury), Suffolk, Hants (Winchester and New Forest), etc. Widely distributed in Scotland, and locally abundant in Ireland. The distribution abroad extends