NOTES ON THE RURALIDS. 1(55 



be it ever so meagre, in all its stadia, or in any stage except its final one. 

 Is this fair to the better-educated youngsters of 1907 who may really 

 wish to become scientific entomologists ? or was the statement, at the 

 commencement of the quotation, that "the beginner," who is presum- 

 ably without experience, is to "select as his experience may dictate," 

 written with the writer's tongue in his cheek, so little did he know or 

 care of the entomological literature upon which he self-imposedly 

 advised ! ! ! 



One extract to illustrate the literature (p. 100): 



I remember, on another occasion, being " out " with a brother naturalist on a 

 pupa-digging expedition. Our occupation was pursued under difficulties, for, it 

 being a steady downpour of rain, an umbrella was held in the left hand, while, 

 with the right, the trowel was worked as best we might. I had been digging for 

 nearly a quarter-of-an-hour at one tree under the shelter of the umbrella. Upon 

 standing up to relieve my aching back, I found myself surrounded by a double 

 " cordon " of sheep and cows. The inner circle was formed of the sheep, the outer 

 of the cows. The solemn open-mouthed wonder of the sheep, and the grave 

 dignified astonishment at my proceedings expressed in the faces of the cows, was 

 one of the most ludicrous sights I ever witnessed, etc. 



Fancy sheep in "open-mouthed" wonder standing in a ring, inside 

 an outer ring of cows. Natural history on the wider scale evidently. 

 The concluding paragraph is almost as remarkable as literature in a 

 book of this kind : — 



To end a book well is, perhaps, as difficult as to begin and carry it on well, but 

 I trust my readers will agree with me in thinking that no better or fitter words 

 could be found to conclude a work of this nature than those of the Psalmist : 

 " O Lord, how manifold are Thy works; in wisdom has Thou made them all ; the 

 earth is full of Thy riches." 



This little antique work, " revised and extended," and dated 

 " 1907," has been sent to us for serious review. In this age of 

 " Nature-study classes," and thirty-seven years after the passing of 

 the really first important Education Act, one wonders of what value 

 much of the contents can be to any really serious beginners who are 

 approaching the scientific study of entomology, and have no desire to 

 be exterminators of our ever-decreasing " butterfly " fauna. Whatever 

 value it had in 1857, it is difficult to understand what it can now have 

 in the more scientifically enlightened age of 1907. 



Notes on the Ruralids, from a Friend's Diary and Collection. 



By Rev. C. R. N. BURROWS. 



By the kindness of my old friend, Mr. F. Norgate, I have been 

 allowed to gather the following notes from his collection and diaries: — 



Callophrys rubi. — Captured at Sparham, Norfolk, and Bury St. 

 Edmunds. Of fourteen specimens, set for undersides, six have only 

 one white spot on the underside, that on the costa of hindwings; the 

 maximum number being eight. 



Bithys qu^rcus. — Two specimens of a J aberration inclining to the 

 ab. bell us, Gerhard, one with a much better developed orange spot 

 than the other. Mr. Noroiate's note reads: " August 1st, 1874. — At 

 Drayton Drury (in Norfolk) I took . . . five Purple Hairstreaks 

 from the top of an oak (where I sat for an hour or more). One $ had 

 a distinct, and the other an indistinct, orange central spot on the 

 upper surface of each forewing. Such are recorded from Hungary as 

 Tkecla querent var. bellus, Gerhard." These specimens are still in 

 Mr. Norgate's collection, and, in spite of their age, are in a fair state 



