130 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



Similar experiences are recorded in the Entomologist and 



Entomologists' Record for October. Records are given from 



Bexley and Strood (Kent), Reigate, Chiselhurst, and Ilford. 



The Rev. Gilbert H. Raynor writes : — 



" I saw at least fifty specimens of this beautiful insect disporting themselves 

 on the flowers of Sedurn spectahile in the garden of Woodham Mortimer Place, 

 Essex, this morning (September 2ist\ The Sedum is planted in a row some 

 thhty yards long, to form the border of a flower-bed. Here and there, among 

 the Cardui flashed out the vivid scarlet of Vanessa atalanta, and there were 

 simply hundreds of humble-bees and hive-bees, not to mention that common 

 autumn imitator of the latter, Eristalis tenax. Truly a wonderful and magnifi- 

 cent sight, and long to be remembered." 



The most probable explanation of this abundance of the 



butterfly is that, like other species occasionally {e.g. Pieris hrassiccB) 



it is a visitor, voluntary or involuntarily, from the Continent^ A 



very qualified observer in Essex, Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., 



F.L.S., writing from Dovercourt on September 23rd to the 



Morning Post, very pertinently remarks : — 



"The strong south-easterly winds which have been blowing continuously on 

 this coast for the past four days have brought on immense number of the Painted 

 Lady butterfly [Cynthia cardui) across the North Sea. Two days ago not one 

 was to be seen, but on Tuesday last, notwithstanding that there has been 

 scarcely any sun, they are in hundreds everywhere. It is a large bright-coloured 

 butterfly, as I daresay many of your readers know, and not one to be easily 

 overlooked. A few are generally seen every year at this time, and after a hot 

 dry summer they are often abundant, so it is strange they should be so plentiful 

 after the wretched weather that has prevailed during the past season. These are 

 not newly-hatched butterflies, as many of them are weatherbeaten, nor are they 

 likely to be immigrants, for immigration, as a rule, only takes place after a long 

 continuence of hot weather. They are only wanderers blown across, whether 

 they wished it or not. The common Gamma moth [Pliisia gamma), of which 

 only a few were to be seen a day or two ago, was also swarming on Tuesday — 

 another case of enforced immigration." 



And lastly, from Whitby, Yorkshire, Mr. W. L. G. Bennett 

 writes : — 



*' It may interest !Mr. jSIathew to know that the Vanessa cardui is very 

 plentiful at and near Whitby, which seems to favour his supposition that they 

 have been blown over the North Sea. There have been this summer from the 



I Coleman, in his Biiiish Butierflies, records an extraordinary flight of the small white 

 butterfly (Fieiis rapcc) crossing the Channel from France to England. " Such was the 

 density and extent of the cloud formed by the living mass that it completely obscured the 

 sun from the people on board our Continental steamers on their passage, for many 

 hundreds of yards, while the insects strewed the decks in all directions. The flight 

 reached England about noon, and dispersed themselves inland and along the shore, 

 darkening the air as they went. During the sea-passage of the butterflies the weather 

 was calm and sunny, with scarce a putl of wind stirring, but an hour or so after they 

 reached terra firina it came on to blow great guns from the S.W., the direction whence 

 the insects came." A great immigration of Pieris brassiccc on to the Essex coast, 

 observed by Mr. F. Kerry, is recorded in the Essex Naturalist, vol. vi., p. 205. 



