1896.] Y^s.-^n.—Mcla7iism in Campiogravwia bilhicata. 75 



A second form which I took some years ago at Dursey 

 Island and Ballinskelligs Bay, Co. Kerry, has the whole ground- 

 colour of the fore-wings, and in a less degree that of the hind 

 wings darkened, closely approximating to suffused specimens 

 described by the late Mr. Jenner Weir from Unst, one of the 

 Shetland Islands, but more melanic. This I shall call ab. 

 infuscata. Mr. G. H. Carpenter in a subsequent year got an- 

 other specimen also at Dursey Island which confirms its local- 

 isation there, and indicates that my specimens were not the 

 result of any particular seasonal influence. In the year 1892, 

 however, on the same coast I got 20 examples of a most 

 remarkable local variety, with all four wings of a uniform 

 sooty black, a trace of yellowish being perceivable on the 

 hind wings of one or two only. No typical or intermediate 

 forms were seen, and subsequent searches have proved that 

 this melanic form has wholly superseded the type in that 

 locality. It may be described as follows : 



Var. isolata. — With all the wings of a sooty black, upon which 

 the waved strigse and median band are marked in darker tone. 

 The hind wings in some instances are shot with a yellowish tone. 

 The body and underside of the wings are also of a sooty black. 

 The size is above the average, being in many examples 

 if inches from tip to tip, which is a proof that the blacken- 

 ing is not a result of dwarfing or diseased conditions. 



In 1893 I secured about forty examples, but in the following- 

 summer very few were to be had, but I got a batch of ova 

 from some females. The larvse were healthy and fed freel}* 

 on grass and I left them in the care of a friend, but most 

 unfortunately the experiment was not conducted to a successful 

 issue, and no moths were bred. Through this misfortune I 

 fear the opportunity of procuring good specimens has been 

 lost, as the race seems to have come to an untimely end. 

 The place of their occurrence is a small rock-islet off the coast 

 of Kerry. Formerly there were considerable tracts of sward 

 between the rocky heights, and Sile7ie niaritima as well as a 

 limited number of other maritime plants were to be found in 

 the crevices and ledges. But the winter of 1893-4 was fear- 

 fully stormy in those parts, and all the headlands of Kerry 

 were perpetually swept by enormous Atlantic waves, which 

 breaking on the cliffs dashed floods of water high into the air ; 

 the salt brine was carried by the fierce gales over heights 100 



