224- White ButterJUes of Britain. 



I am told that the males and females keep distinct during 

 the winter. This is not improbable; Mr. White says the 

 same of the chaffinches, in his Natural History of Selboriie. I 

 had no opportunity of deciding on the day in question. I have 

 lieard also that the families of old and young birds are some- 

 times seen together in the months of August and September. 

 This I hope to witness ; at present I am rather sceptical. 



As my name would give no weight to these remarks, I 

 withhold it ; but should they be thought worthy of a place in 

 any of your forthcoming Numbers, I may at some future time 

 trouble you under my own signature. At present I subscribe 

 myself, A Lover of Nature. 



Woolwich, March 20. 1829. 



Art. V. On the White Butterfiies of Britain, By J. Rennie, 

 Esq. A.M. A.L.S. 



The power of discriminating among things which differ in 

 many minute points, but whose general similarity of appear- 

 ance usually deceives the common observer into a belief of 

 their identity, is one of the most necessary qualifications of a 

 naturalist. This power, indeed, constitutes almost the whole 

 difference between the accurate naturalist and those persons 

 who look on the wonders of creation with careless indifference, 

 who call every wild flower a weed, and every insect a fly or a 

 beetle. According to my experience, it is exceedingly diffi- 

 cult for persons arrived at m.anhood to acquire this power of 

 discrimination; but in early life, a little care on the part of a 

 parent or a teacher will render it comparatively easy. The 

 training up young people to this mode of observation is of in- 

 finitely more importance to them than exercising their memory 

 exclusively upon books ; which is the usual routine of proce- 

 dure at schools. By the latter method, the memory may, no 

 doubt, be highly improved ; but it is, almost without exception, 

 at the expense of the judgm.ent, which, by the former method, 

 is the chief faculty exercised. It would not, indeed, be a very 

 liard matter to demonstrate that the practice of distinguishing 

 among the genera, species, and varieties in natural history is 

 a more efficient exercise of judgment than even mathematics, 

 though I cannot at present spare time for this. It will answer 

 my purpose better to illustrate the principles of discrimination 

 which I have advocated, by some of the most conspicuous of 

 our native insects. 



The most common British butterflies must have been re- 



