Queries and Answers, 191 



one was more competent to give judgment in such a case, spoke 

 of it as the rarest, perhaps, of our British blues (rarissimafere 

 omnium nostralum cceruleorum\ and as having been then lately 

 sent to him, by two different friends, out of Yorkshire and Nor- 

 folk. Since that period, the species has (to use the collector's 

 phrase) turned up in a variety of situations. Cambridgeshire, 

 Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and Surrey are mentioned among 

 its localities : and Lewin had previously taken it near Bath. 

 In 1804, June 28., I took a single specimen in an open plant- 

 ation by the side of Coleshill Park; and on July 15. 1812, 

 another in a woody situation, near Hinckley, Leicestershire, 

 in a very worn and faded condition : both were females. I 

 have an example, also, of the same sex captured by a village 

 shoemaker, in another part of Warwickshire, I believe in the 

 vicinity of Birmingham ; and a collector at Coventry has 

 several specimens, which he took some years since in the 

 neighbourhood of that city, without at the time distinguishing 

 them from the common blue. A male specimen, likewise, 

 was taken, about thirty years ago by a friend of mine, near 

 Dudley. The species, in short, though by no means common, 

 appears to be widely distributed: nor is it peculiar to chalk 

 districts ; but seems to delight in woody situations abounding 

 in grass. Probably it may be sometimes overlooked on the 

 wing, and passed by for P. I'carus. The azure blue (P. 

 Argiolus), of which X. demands a description, has already been 

 figured (both sexes) in Vol. IV. p. 477. Without adverting 

 again to its dissimilar habits (see Vol. V. p. 490-1.), I may 

 just observe, that it cannot well be confounded with any other 

 British species, being the only one that is blue on both surfaces 

 of the wings. The under side is of a delicate grey silvery 

 blue, sparingly ornamented with irregular black spots, in 

 which latter respect it resembles the corresponding surface of 

 P. Cymo/a or A v cis of the authors above quoted. Should 

 this reply not prove satisfactory to X., nothing remains 

 for it but an inspection of his specimens ; a method which, 

 after all, would perhaps be the most desirable. — Yours, 

 W. T. Bree. Allesley Ptectory, Jan. 9. 1833. 



Is Pitch stone found in Scotland ? — Phillips, in his excellent 

 Outlines of Mineralogy and Geology (p. 168.), speaking of the 

 pitchstone, says, " It abounds in some districts of volcanic 

 origin, but in Britain is found only in veins, occasionally, as 

 in Ireland, traversing primitive rocks." Now, Sir, I possess 

 a good-sized (more than two inches thick) specimen of pitch- 

 stone from the Isle of Arran, knocked off", as I was told, from 

 a large block ; and the man of whom I purchased it assured 

 me that pitchstone is found in the islands of Arran and Skye, 



