NOTES ON COLLECTING 143 



"were very blue, and others had the peculiar pale blue irregular suffusions. 

 — Hy. J. Turner. 



Habit of Tinea rusticella. — -It may be worth recording that I 

 have bred some fifteen of this Tineid from a " pellet," or " casting," 

 mainly consisting of fur and bones, which I took early this month 

 (May 1914) from the nest of a Little Owl {Athene noctua) at Hardwick, 

 near this town. — P. A. Buxton, F.E.S., Cambridge. 



Collecting in the Spring of 1914. — -After the many complaints 

 •one heard of the dearth of butterflies last year, it is a real pleasure 

 to be able to record their extreme abundance this spring. So, at least, 

 I found them last week in Surrey. One is rarely privileged in England 

 to see nearly a third of the British species on the wing in a single day, 

 .still less so in the middle of May, yet such was my pleasant experience, 

 when, on the 15th, I saw no less than nineteen species on the wing. 

 The warm spell at the end of April brought things along wonderfully, 

 and I heard of Leptosia [Leucopkasia) sinapis, and other spring butter- 

 flies, being taken by some young friends of mine as early as April 29th. 



The locality was a remote spot in western Surrey, and, being 

 anxious to see this little butterfly on the wing in one of the home 

 counties, I seized the first opportunity of following it up. 



The cold spell intervening, the first suitable day arrived on May 

 15th, and I started oft' for a long day at six in the morning. The 

 pleasure of a real " butterfly " day never grows stale, and this one, 

 ^enhanced by the glory of the spring flowers, was a day of days. 

 August Gonepteryx rhainni, in dozens in the New Forest glades, make 

 a fine show, but not to be coinpared with G. rhaiiiniin equal numbers, 

 among the young birches and bluebells, as on this day. They are 

 ragged, it is true, but their raggedness is not apparent on the wing, 

 nor even settling unless closely examined. Eucldo'e cardamines was in 

 •evidence directly I alighted from the station for my long tramp to the 

 sinapis locality. I must have seen many hundreds during the day, 

 including the usual small proportion of females, but they were quite 

 put in the shade in point of numbers by Brenthis eiiphrosi/ne, when I 

 passed through some of the woodland clearings. 



They were in such numbers that over some of the bugle patches 

 one could frequently have netted half-a-dozen at a stroke. Parari/e 

 ■wegaera occurred along the roads, and P. er/eria sparingly in the woods, 

 "while Hesperia inalvae and Nisoniades (Tlianaus) tayes were everywhere. 

 The three common Pierids were, of course, well in evidence, P. napi 

 being the commonest and P. rapae scarcest. Celastrina argiolas, Rumicia 

 phlaeas, and Coenonyinpha paiiipldlus occurred sparingly, and a single 

 Hainearis (N^emeobius) Incina was netted in a woodland glade. At 

 intervals odd hybernated Vanessids were seen, Aglais nrticae, V. io, and 

 Etigonia polychloros all occurring, and in one corner of a meadow 

 Callophrys ritbi were skipping about the small birches and blackthorns, 

 and well-nigh impossible to follow. 



As I neared my destination the sky clouded over, and for half-an- 

 hour very few butterflies were seen. At last, however, as the sun 

 broke through again, I netted my first L. sinapis, and this was quickly 

 followed by others. They occurred all day over an area of a mile or 

 more, flying feebly and rarely resting. They were nowhere common, 

 but occurred in all the clearings I explored in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, and probably had a fairly considerable range. In all I 



