234 THE entomologist's record. 



favourable ; it was terribly dirty ; but, fortunately, when the weather 

 cleared, which it did most effectually after the first few days of our 

 arrival, we were able to be out the whole day. I paid particular attention, 

 during our visit to the south of France, to the pairing of butterflies, 

 and I found that invariably the paired females were freshly emerged 

 specimens, the males, however, very frequently old and faded. I 

 noticed among others Colias hyale, C. edusa and Pulyommatus baton, 

 and, on other occasions Ai/lais urticae. Mr. Elwes records Patnassius 

 apollo, and, doubtless, further instances Avould not be difficult to find, 

 and further information on this point is desirable. 



It was getting fairly warm when we left for London on May 1st, 

 expecting to return to our former station, Devonport, but much to our 

 disgust, I found orders awaiting me to proceed forthwith to Netheravon 

 for duty. Few people, I imagine, know where Netheravon is, at any 

 rate the officials in the Devonport office did not, but, fortunately, being 

 born and bred in the county, I had a hazy idea it was somewhere on 

 Salisbury Plain, and I eventually got there feeling very like Sydney 

 Smith, who was once curate of this remote and sequestered village, 

 and who exclaimed that though dead and buried he still had the hope 

 of a joyful resurrection. This move, though very annoying at the 

 time, gave me the opportunity of revisiting many of the scenes of my 

 youth and early collecting days at Marlborough and its vicinity. It 

 was with very great interest that I visited localities not seen for more 

 than twenty years, and noted the changes which had taken place in the 

 butterfly fauna in the interval. Limenitu si/billa and Apatura iris had 

 apparently entirely disappeared. I fancy the former is here near the 

 northern limit of its distribution, and the cold weather of 1879-80 

 proved fatal to it. It was fairly common, though local in certain 

 woods from 1874 when I first came across it, till about 1880. A. iris 

 was always rare, but in one locality in, I think, 1882, old Coleman, the 

 local birdstuffer and butterfly-catcher, with whom I had made many a 

 ramble in old days, and whom I found still alive, but very frail (he 

 died the following winter, aged 76), and I saw a dozen or so specimens 

 flying round a small oak-tree ; a splendid entomological sight. We 

 watched them the whole day and towards evening managed to take a 

 female. We discussed old times together this last summer and came 

 to the conclusion that their disappearance was due to the cutting 

 down of the sallows on which the larvs feed, I visited the 

 same tree this last July, but saAv nothing of the insect, and the 

 sallows were also noteworthy by their absence. An/i/nnis ai/laia 

 and A. adippe were abundant in their old haunts, but Dri/as paphia 

 was very scarce. Mdanariiia (jalathea had spread its range most 

 markedly and so also had Theda ir-albuin, but the impression left 

 on my mind was that butterflies, in spite of the glorious summer of 

 1904, were undoubtedly scarcer than they were when I was a 

 boy, and that this was not due, in the localities I have in my 

 mind, to either increased cultivation or over-collecting. I believe my 

 old schoolfellow, Edward Meyrick, is right in attributing it to the 

 extraordinary abundance of starlings. I was particularly impressed 

 with the manner in which these birds carefully and systematically 

 quartered the ground in search of insects ; I feel sure that, whatever 

 good the Wild Birds' Protection Act is doing towards the preservation 

 of our avifauna, it is playing the mischief with many of our butter- 



