96 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly May 



Tweed and in Wales, to introduce Parnassuis, the experiment 

 has been a failure. The old records of its appearance in 

 a state of nature in our islands are vague in the extreme ; 

 and as P. apollo is not a migratory insect in any sense of the 

 word, not even to the extent of the high-ranging butterflies 

 of which I spoke at the beginning of this paper, we may 

 fairly conclude that, while the eyes of those who have 

 reported its appearance may have deceived them in some 

 cases, in others " the addition of the British fauna " has 

 been a stray from the breeding-cage or a chance importa- 

 tion. The pupae can be had for a few pence from foreign 

 dealers ; the rest goes without saying ; and the collector 

 who lately ran down Parnassius apollo in the neighbourhood 

 of the Shakespeare Cliff, Dover, only possesses a British 

 specimen by virtue of its capture on British soil. 



And this leads me to remark that it is a great pity English 

 collectors still continue so largely to preserve the old insular 

 feeling with regard to " foreign " species. Though rich in 

 other orders of Lepidoptera, Great Britain presents a meagre 

 list of butterflies compared with that of other countries. 

 According to the latest authorities, only sixty-five species 

 are admissible as British ; and this, I think, still includes 

 several doubtfuls and some which are not indigenous — the 

 Long-tailed Blue {Lampides bcsticus), the Milkweed butterfly 

 (Danais plexippus), and the certainly extinct Great Copper 

 {Chrysophanus dispar), which alone of our butterflies was 

 peculiar to England. As against this Lapland alone has 

 sixty authenticated species, France no less than 240, and 

 Switzerland, with which we are mainly concerned, over 170. 



The butterflies of the Alps may therefore be recommended 

 to collectors for three reasons : (i) as an assistance to a 

 better knowledge of our own insects, especially helping us to 

 realise that the present lines laid down for divisions into 

 families are by no means settled ; (ii) as affording a delight- 

 ful insight into the great mystery of nature which we call 

 evolution ; and (iii) as a pure distraction to give an ad- 

 ditional zest to travel, and to provide perhaps in after-days 

 a no less enjoyable memento of holidays well spent in sunny 

 Switzerland and elsewhere. 



And now a word about impedimenta. I am often asked 



