{213} The eggs, which are laid loosely, are yellowish or pale straw colour (Plate 84, Fig. 3a). Caterpillar, stoutish, green inclining to yellowish; three lines on the back, the central one dark green, and the others yellowish, as also are the ring divisions; a pale wavy line low down along the sides. In some examples the general colour is pale greyish-brown, inclining to reddish brown. It feeds on grass, dock, chickweed, and various low-growing plants, from August to May, and is often abundant in hay meadows (Fig. 3, Plate 84, is from a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich). The moth occurs throughout the summer, and is very plentiful (often a pest) in almost every hedgerow and most bushy places. JULY HIGHFLYER (_Hydriomena furcata_). Some idea of the variable character of this species (_sordidata_, Fab., and _elutata_, Hubner) may be formed from the selection of half a dozen examples shown on Plate 86. The typical form has the fore wings greyish, with dark bands as in Fig. 1, and a modification without the dark bands seems to be ab. _cinereata_, Prout. In the form _sordidata_, Fabricius, the general colour of the fore wings is greenish, and the bands are dark; ab. _obliterata_, Prout, is of the same colour, but the bands are absent. Ab. _fusco-undata_, Donovan, has the general colour reddish, with dark bands; without dark bands it becomes _testaceata_, Prout. Blackish or sooty forms are referable to _infuscata_, Staud. (Fig. 4). Frequently in the green forms, and less often in the reddish, there is a broad whitish central stripe, and a narrow one on the basal area; in the green form again the basal and central areas are occasionally crossed by red bands, and this is one of the prettiest forms of the species and, so far as I know, occurs only in the large sallow-feeding race; {214} it possibly represents ab. _fusco-undata_, which is most frequent in the smaller moorland race. The egg (Plate 87, Fig. 1b) when figured, February 8, 1908, was whitish as regards the shell, but the interior was dark greenish. In April the caterpillar appeared to be formed, but it did not leave the shell until early in May. The full-grown caterpillar (Plate 87, Figs. 1, 1a) is brownish, inclining to blackish; whitish between the rings, white lines along the back and sides, and tinged with red along the spiracular region. It feeds, in May and June, on sallow, willow, poplar, hazel, bilberry, and heather. The moth is out in July and August, but I have seen the small bilberry-feeding form (Plate 86, Figs. 5, 6) on a corner of Exmoor, North Devon, in great profusion in late June, whilst in the same district the sallow-feeding, larger form appeared about a fortnight later, at which time specimens among bilberry were not numerous, and rather shabby in appearance.