around Pontnewydd JVorfo, Monmouthshire, 225 



cerned, that is, a single male associates with a single female." 

 It is difficult for a tyro to put himself into opposition to a 

 professor ; indeed, fault-finding is not a pleasant business, 

 nevertheless, when truth is at stake, it would ill become the 

 merest tyro to bow at the shrine of acknowledged superiority, 

 when the facts before his eyes are opposed to the principles 

 propounded : besides, it is only by an investigation of facts, 

 as observed by different persons in different localities, that 

 we can hope to arrive at the full truth in natural history. I 

 have not found the female of Pontic cardamines to be rarer 

 than the females of other Papilionidoe (with the exception of 

 Polyommatus A'rgus, of which by and by). I have cap- 

 tured many of the females of Pontic cardamines, and might, 

 if I were so inclined, have captured many more ; but I do 

 not recollect that I ever captured a single specimen but on 

 the wing. If the other position (of pairing) be true, it ap- 

 pears almost an improvident provision (if I may so speak) of 

 nature, to have produced so many males to no purpose. 

 The intention of the sexes is, I think, self-evident, — reproduc- 

 tion ; and, consequently, at least amongst the higher order of 

 beings, they generally bear a near equality to each other in 

 point of number ; but if, " while every meadow is swarming 

 with males," no more than "one or two females" are "to 

 be seen in a season ;" — if, in other words, the females are to 

 the males as one to several thousands, and yet if they " pair, 

 that is, a single male associates with a single female;" it 

 appears to me there is a great waste of creative power for no 

 end. In Polyommatus A'rgus, to which I have before referred, 

 the males and females which are to be captured bear a much 

 nearer proportion to each other than in any other species ; 

 and I have frequently seen the males sporting and toying 

 from one female to another, without showing any signs of 

 attachment to any particular individual. 



8. Melil<z s a Euphrosyne, Pearl- bordered fritillary ; 9. M. 

 Dictgmia, Pearl* bordered likeness; 10. M. A'rtemis, Greasy 

 fritiUary. — The M. Euphrosyn^ I have met with in much 

 greater abundance some seasons than in others ; the M. 

 Dictynna I have always found in a bog, at a considerable 

 elevation on the mountain side, and in no other place ; and 

 the A'rtemis, which, I believe, is generally reckoned rare, so 

 abounds in this neighbourhood, that almost any quantity 

 might be captured during the season. If, however, the fly be 

 not taken almost immediately upon its quitting the chrysalis, 

 its beauty will be found to be considerably tarnished. Some 

 of your readers appear, occasionally, to be displeased with the 

 catalogues of natural productions which have, from time to 



Vol. VI. — No. 33. a 



