1901.] 101 



An unrecorded recent native example of Muclina isosceles, Miill. fnifescens, 

 V. d. L.J. — It is no doubt a faot tliat many years ago this fine Dragon-fly was, if 

 local, not uncommon in East Anglia, cs|)eoially Norfolk. Eeccnt records have been 

 very few — by recent I mean within the last 20 years or thereabouts, and mainly 

 from the neighbourhood of Norwich and Ranworth. Last autumn Mr. J. Edwards 

 gave me a fine J labelled " Norfolk, Thouless," but without date or further locality. 

 That it is quite recent there can be no doubt, and Mr. Thouless collects largely in 

 the vicinity of Norwich. My own opinion is that the insect is probably locid, but 

 not uncommon where it occurs, and only wants looking for : now that more attention 

 is being paid to these insects it should not long remain a rarity. It is comparatively 

 early, and search should be commenced not later than the beginning of June (but 

 it may last a considerable time). It could only be mistaken fcjr M. grandis, but is 

 smaller, the body brighter red, and the wings want the brownish-olive tinge so con- 

 spicuous in (jrandis, the latter moreover is later (these apart from structural differ- 

 ences). I hope the coming summer will not pass without a systematic search being 

 made for the species, and have little doubt that if such search be made it will be 

 rewarded with success. I possess five native examples, four of which are recent 

 (three from Mr. Barrett), the other probably dating from the first half of the last 

 century, obtained at the sale of the late T. C. Heysham's collection in 186S. — R. 

 McLachlan, Lewisham, London : March IQth, 1901. 



The IjARViE OF thk British Butterflies and Moths : by (the late) 

 William Buckler, edited by Geo. T. Porritt, F.L.S. Vol. ix, Pyrales, Cram- 

 bites, Tortrices, Pterophori, &c. 8vo, pp. 419, Plates cxlviii— clxiv (concluding the 

 work). London : Ray Society. 1901. 



It is now just about 17 years since the writer of the pi-esent notice was deputed 

 by the Ray Society to proceed to Emsworth and claim from the representative of 

 the late Mr. Buckler his original drawings* and notes, and he remembers that it 

 was with a distinct sense of relief that he deposited his charge the same evening 

 at the house of his neighbour, the Rev. Prof. Wiltshire, Secretary of the Society. 

 He did not then anticipate that the undertaking of publishing these figures and 

 notes would not be completed till the opening months of the next century. 

 But " all's well that ends well ;" and although there has been vexatious delay (for 

 which neither the Society nor the editors were to blame), the fact that the work has 

 run to nine volumes renders it a matter for deep congratulation, amongst those few 

 who know the difficulties that have been encountered, that it is at last concluded. 

 Those who know the marvellous delicacy of touch imparted to his drawings by the 

 late Mr. Buckler, a delicacy in which we venture to think he stood alone in this or 

 any other country, will say that on the whole the reproductions have been effective, 

 and more especially in the later vols. Those who have studied his minute descrip- 

 tions of habits, &c., will allow that in this respect he might justly have been styled 

 "the modern Reaumur." That the descriptions of larvae are not quite on modern 

 lines from a scientific point of view is no doubt true : Mr. Buckler was an untutored 

 student of, and delineator after, Nature, and moreover, in his day most of the 



* We hove reason to believe that Mr. Buckler's origln.al drawiiig.s will soon be in the market, 

 they having served the purpose for which the Ray Society acquired them. — Eds. 



