^aiiTstoitli ?Bistritt. 



By C. J. WATKINS. 



IN the spring of this j'ear, of hybernated butterflies 

 Gonopteryx rliamni and Vanessa urticee were seen 

 here on March 21, but last year (1896) I saw V. iirticce 

 flying in Januar3\ The first observation in my oldest note- 

 book records the appearance of this welcome butterfly on 

 December 18, 1866. I have failed to notice V. C. album in 

 our garden this year, but last year it was first seen on March 

 24. I have Ibred this interesting species several times 

 from larvae or pupae found on gooseberry and red currant 

 bushes. In the Entomologist for September, 1871, will be 

 found an account of my first brood, where I, at the same 

 time, ask Mr. Newman a question as to its being double- 

 brooded. This summer the Cabbage Whites have been very 

 abundant, and probably P. hrassicm was the worst pest of 

 them. 



Last year, on February 15, I received from Barnsle}', 

 Yorkshire, a living specimen of P. rapcc^ caught in a garden 

 there on the previous day. When the cuckoo flower 

 {Cardamine pratensis) appears, we expect to see the (^ 

 {A. cardamines) taking its first flight along the brookside 

 meadows. My earliest yearly record of it is April 11, 



274 



