66 KEY. C. M. PEKKIXS — BEITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



the mean time — 19 years — I do not think I have seen a single 

 specimen, tliough I have visited the locality every intervening 

 season. They were quite as common here ; instead of supplying 

 a cabinet, one might have filled a small basket, and not a few of 

 the scarcer variety, Helice, were among them. Let not the new 

 collector despair then if he fails to catch this insect his first year 

 or so, for some day after waiting he may expect to catch as many 

 as he pleases. Somewhat like, but a little smaller and of a paler 

 colour, and, in my experience, far rarer, is Colias Hyale, the pale 

 clouded yellow. My second son caught one in the playground 

 adjoining my school, in October, 1875, and I have seen one or two 

 other specimens taken near St. Albans, and so I doubt not but that 

 every one who seeks it' in clover or lucerne fields in the autumn, in 

 this neighbourhood, would find it, if not in his first year, yet 

 early in his entomological life. The next species will be Aporia 

 Cratcegi, the black-veined white, easily distinguished from the 

 other whites by being semi-transparent and showing distinct black 

 veins upon the upper side of the wings. This I have only taken 

 once, in Dean Forest; but as its food plant, the hawthorn, is so 

 common, and it appears to be a widespread insect, I cannot be sur- 

 prised if others more fortunate than myself have proved it a native 

 of this county. For some unknown cause it seems to be dis- 

 appearing from many places where it was formerly abundant, 

 wliich certainly cannot be laid to the destruction of its food plant, 

 as is the case with some of our Lepidoptera. 



Of the next three butterflies — Pieris Brassica;, the large cabbage 

 white ; Pieris Rapce, the small white ; and Pieris Napi, the gxeen- 

 veiued white — I shall say nothing, as they are so well known and 

 only too abundant in every garden, ever causing trouble to the lady 

 with her bed of mignonette, or to the cook in the dressing of her 

 vegetables ; but will pass on to Pieris Baplidice, the Bath white. 

 This is the first great rarity, and fortunate is the person who takes 

 one on English soil, for while a shilling will purchase a Con- 

 tinental one, you may bid at a sale a sovereign in vain for a proved 

 British specimen. A few, beyond question, have been taken in 

 this country, but great doubt exists whether they were raised from 

 the egg laid on English soil, or have been blown across the Channel 

 from the coast of France, where they abound. In 1855, I was 

 spending a short time in Normandy, and in visiting an old Roman 

 camp a short distance out of the town of Dieppe, I saw them flying 

 in hundreds over the rough long grass, and without difliculty' 

 secured half a dozen good specimens, but having no entomological 

 apparatus with me, unfortunately I spoilt them all before reaching 

 home. I can give you no clue for obtaining this insect except to 

 keep your eyes well open when visiting the south coast, and even 

 then I fear you will be disappointed if you expect to catch it. The 

 next in order is Anthocharis Cardamines, the orange-tip. This you 

 will be sure of meeting with every spring, flitting up and down the 

 hedgerows in our lanes and fields at a tolerably brisk pace, and 

 dodging about so that you may strike once and again before you 



