THE ABRAXAS GROSSULARIATA AT THE RECENT MADDISON SALE. 87 



occurs on sloe at Sheen, Survey, but I have not yet taken it on this 

 aide of the Thames. L. comowiteUa, Bankes, is common on apple- 

 trunks in Chiswick, both in its typical form and in var. defiexella, and 

 I took one specimen with the left forewing almost typical and right 

 var. dejieu-ella. L. blancardella, Fb., does not occur in Chiswick, as far 

 as I am aware, but I have reared it from wild apple from Sheen. 

 L. oxyacantliae, Frey, occurs on hawthorn, both trees and hedges, on 

 both sides of the Thames, but L. sorbi, Frey, seems rare, as I have 

 only taken it at Wimbledon, Surrey, off' /'//r».s aucupaiia. Doubtless 

 it would be more common if the food-plant were abundant. The other 

 two British species of this group, I have not succeeded in finding. 

 Though I have observed some mines on the underside of quince leaves, 

 I have not yet been able to rear any moths. Last autumn I noticed 

 here some mines in birch leaves, which, from Dr. Wood's description, 

 appeared to be those of Nepticnla confnsella, Wood. They were 

 submitted to Dr, Wood, who kindly confirmed my supposition. 



The Abraxas grossularlata at the recent Maddison sale. 



By (Rev.) G. H. RAYNOK, M.A. 



The late Mr. Thomas Maddison was deeply interested in the two 

 species to which I myself have given considerable attention during the 

 last few years, I mean At/lais tuticae and Abra.ms (jros.'oilariata. I was 

 not able to get up to town on February 23rd, to see the former (which 

 to judge from the catalogue, must have been very fine), but, by 

 March 9th, T had shaken off my attack of influenza, and put in a 

 couple of hours at Stevens' before the sale began. After looking 

 carefully through the Ahraxm (/rosstdariata, included in 103 lots, I came 

 to the conclusion that they would probably fetch £70. How near the 

 mark this estimate was is proved by the fact that they actually realised 

 £62 43. I do not possess a catalogue of the late Rev. J. Greene's sale, but, 

 unless I am mistaken, his (/nmulariata produced £80, whilst £200 re- 

 sulted from the 148 lots included in my own sale in the autumn of 1907. 



Mr. Maddison for some years bred many thousands of A.</rossiiluriata, 

 not only from his own neighbourhood (Durham), but from larvae 

 obtained from many parts of the kingdom. It would, therefore, 

 seem strange that he reared only one striking aberration, lot 225 

 (purchased at £3), were it not for the fact that most connoisseurs of 

 this species are well aware of the great rarity of really extreme forms. 

 Mr. Maddison himself, fully convinced of this truth, acquired most of 

 his superior aberrations by purchase, and some few by exchange, but, 

 although bles.sedwith a sufficiency of this world's goods — for according 

 to the published details of his will, he left £70,000— he did not, I am 

 told, invest in the very best aberrations, having some such limit as £2 in 

 his mind for any single specimen. Hence one can hardly be surprised 

 that the highest price obtained was £3 (given for the above-mentioned 

 lot), next to this coming two lots at £2 each, viz., 160 and 177, both 

 reared by Mr, Harwood, of Colchester. The only other lots 

 that attained to £1 10s., were 229, at £1 15s., and 230, at £1 10s. 

 These were both niiiioHparsata, from Yorkshire, and the latter, 

 although perhaps a trifle small, was a very good investmeiit at the 

 price. I may, perhaps, here go out of my way to remark that the 

 highest price ever given at auction for an aberration of this species, was 



