298 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly Nov. 



moment when it flashed its glory before me always comes 

 like a new pleasure." 



The large copper was never observed in Scotland or 

 Ireland, and seems only to have been met with abundantly 

 in England in the two counties, Cambridgeshire and Hunt- 

 ingdonshire. Its favourite haunt in the former county was 

 at Whittlesea Mere ; in the latter Yaxley and Holm fens. 

 It appears to have become extinct in Cambridgeshire in 

 1845, while Mr Bond informs us that the last "take "in 

 Huntingdonshire was made at Yaxley in either 1847 or 1848, 

 and consisted of five specimens. This is the last ''take" 

 on record. 



The causes which led to the extermination of the insect 

 have never been completely explained. Mr Newman at- 

 tributes its disappearance to the floods to which the young 

 hibernating larvas must have been subject during the winter. 

 It is, however, difficult to see how this could have been the 

 sole or even the main cause, seeing that floods could hardly 

 have been peculiar to the period at which the butterfly be- 

 came extinct. It would seem that most probably the chief 

 cause of its extirpation was the drainage of the fenny districts 

 which had hitherto formed its exclusive haunt, aided by the 

 burning of the surface - growth, done during dry weather 

 when the land was to be reclaimed ; and to this must be 

 added the unceasing attacks of collectors. 



The changes during the past century which have been 

 brought about by the industry and progress of man have 

 indeed been great ; steam draining mills and the general 

 improvement in agriculture have changed the marshes into 

 pastures and corn-fields, and there were few districts in the 

 fen country at the latter end of the century in which the 

 whistle of the locomotive was not heard. 



As an instance of the changes that were taking place in the 

 fens, Mr E. C. F. Jenkins, in a note made in 1859, says: 

 "Thirty years ago the fens about Whittlesea Mere were 

 most interesting localities for the entomologist, the botanist, 

 and the ornithologist. I lived then in that neighbourhood, 

 and those pursuits were my delight. Papilio machaon might 

 then be had to any amount ; the flight of Chrysophanus dispar 

 was abundant in July ; the moth L. dispar was very plentiful ; 



