Se* Insect Miscellanies. 



been transmitted to England, they are also better known to 

 ornithologists. We must, however, conclude our long ex- 

 tracts and notice of this interesting volume, rich in food for 

 the philosophic naturalist, sincerely hoping, that, with such 

 valuable materials at hand, the aid of the British government 

 will never be wanting to encourage perseverance and the pro- 

 motion of natural science. 



Art. II. Insect Miscellanies. [Understood to be by Professor 

 Rennie.] 12mo. London, Charles Knight, 1831. 



Sir, 



There are a few remarks which I wish to offer on Professor 

 Rennie's last volume, entitled Insect Miscellanies^ which com- 

 pletes the entomological series in the hih^^'^v of Entertaining 

 Knowledge. If, in one or two instances, I venture to differ in 

 opinion from the author, I trust I shall be excused for the 

 liberty I am taking in so doing. The volume in question is, 

 like its predecessors, highly interesting and valuable : but 

 still, nothing human can be expected to be perfect, or entirely 

 free from errors ; and these, when they do occur, it is more 

 especially of importance to point out, in a work like the 

 above, which is so widely circulated, and intended for the use 

 rather of beginners than of professed and learned naturalists. 

 I offer my remarks in the same order in which the passages 

 occur to which they relate, without aiming at a more con- 

 nected and methodical arrangement. 



At p. 1 2. Professor Rennie states ; — 



" We remarked, for several weeks, near St. Adresse, in Normandy, a 

 very limited spot, close by the sea, to be daily frequented by about half a 

 dozen of the clouded yellow butterflies (Coliaj? Edusa Stephens), which 

 seemed to make a regular circuit, and return again; altogether inde- 

 pendent of the direction of the wind, against which they often made way. 

 Now, as they often rose to so considerable a height that they must have 

 lost sight of the ground, we conclude that they guided their flight more 

 by the weight of the superincumbent air than by the direction of the 

 wind ; an inference rendered more probable, by their never being seen 

 on the heights which there rise steeply from the shore." 



Without offering any opinion on the particular theory here 

 advanced, I merely wish to mention a circumstance corrobo- 

 rative, in part, at least, of the above statement. I have always 

 considered Colias Edus« as one of the most rambling and 

 restless of our British papilios. One instance, however, has 

 lately occurred to me, in which this species seemed to evince 

 a marked and decided attachment to a particular spot. Last 

 autumn I observed five or six specimens of the clouded yellow 



