The first British specimen, a male, was found on alder near Preston, and was recorded by Doubleday in the _Zoologist_ for 1847. A second example was noted from the same locality in 1849. This district in Lancashire, and Tilgate Forest in Sussex, are the chief homes in the north and the south of England respectively; but one or more specimens have occurred in Cheshire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Devonshire, and more frequently in Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. It does not seem to inhabit Scotland or Ireland, neither has it been recorded from Wales, so far as I can find, more than once. The species is found in Germany, Switzerland, Eastern France, Belgium, Southern Sweden, Central Russia, Livonia, Finland, Ussuri, and a local race occurs in Amurland. THE POPLAR KITTEN (_Cerura bifida_). Fore wings grey, with a broad, dark grey central band, and a cloud of the same colour towards the tips of the wings; the band is inwardly margined by an almost straight black line, and outwardly by a curved line; the third line is double, and curved towards the costa, forming the inner edge of the grey cloud, the lower part is wavy. The first black line is inwardly, and {60} the second outwardly edged with ochreous, and preceding the first is a series of black dots. The full-grown caterpillar, which is green, with a yellow-edged, purplish, irregular stripe on the back, is figured on Plate 23, together with a very young example, the purplish-black eggs as laid, and the red-brown chrysalis. The cocoon from which the chrysalis was extracted was spun up on a fairly stout twig of poplar, from which some of the bark had been torn; the cocoon was formed, as regards the upper part, on the bare twig, and this was covered with gnawed wood, instead of with bark fragments, as is the lower end. The moth is figured on Plate 22, and the early stages on Plate 23. The moth emerges in June, sometimes in July, and may occasionally be found at rest on the trunks of poplars, on which the caterpillar feeds from July to September; also on adjacent walls or palings. The cocoons are made up on the surface or in the chinks of the bark, and may be searched for, all through the winter and early spring. It is curious to note how readily these are detected after the moth has escaped, and how difficult they are to see before that event. Usually there is but one brood in the year, but in the hot summer of 1906 a male specimen emerged from a few chrysalids that I had reared from eggs laid at the end of June of that year. On the other hand, the moth has been known to remain in the chrysalis for two winters. The species is not uncommon in some parts of the London district, and seems to occur throughout England wherever poplars abound. It does not appear to have been found in Scotland, and is scarce in Ireland. Abroad it is found in Central Europe with a northern range to Finland, southwards to Italy and Greece, and eastwards to the Altai. [Illustration]