SOME LEPIDOPTERA OF THE " FOURSHIRE STONE " DISTRICT. 165 



cannot help thinking that some entomologists, who do not go 

 abroad, might easily do far worse than take a holiday in this locality. 

 Although the captures come under the head of Warwickshire, because 

 Wolford itself, and the greater part of Wolford Wood, are in that 

 county, yet by no means the whole list really belongs there, for 

 Wolford is a village only two miles from the " Fourshire Stone," a 

 point at which the counties of Worcester, Warwick, Oxford, and 

 Gloucester meet. There is no place in the village which an entomo- 

 logist could conveniently make his head-quarters, and the neighbour- 

 hood would be most easily and efficiently worked from ]\Ioreton-in- 

 Marsh, a station on the G.W.R., about half-way between Oxford and 

 Worcester, being itself within the boundaries of Gloucestershire, and 

 possessed of two or three very possible abiding-places. The great 

 wood itself has now for years been inexorably closed, not only to the 

 public, but even to us, who for more than a quarter of a century had 

 the free and undisputed run of it ; but the high-road between Moreton 

 and Wolford skirts it for about a mile, the public footpath between the 

 same two places passes through a portion of it, and there is another 

 road, crossed by the said footpath, and leading to the hamlet of Lower 

 Lemington, which runs for a short distance bordered by the wood on 

 both sides. The footpath, " the field way to Moreton," as it always 

 was to us, must be somewhat minutely described, as it is by far the 

 most accessible and richest of the good localities connected with the 

 wood which are still open to entomologists. The beginning of the 

 path is reached from the up- platform of Moreton station by crossing 

 the branch line to Shipston-on-Stour, i.e., it is on the side of the 

 station farthest from the town. The first fields are now utilised for 

 golf, but they used to be, and probably still are, a favourite haunt of 

 Ino statices ; Anthrocera filipendulae was also common there. Keeping 

 to the path exactly, which perhaps is the safest thing to do, one 

 arrives almost at the high road, but a sharp turn to the left takes the 

 pedestrian finally off in the direction of Wolford Wood. These 

 next three or four fields are not very prolific, though at the 

 hedge- row at the far end of the first, one will probably meet 

 with I'^ncldor cardaiiiincx, CTonepteri/.c r/ianini, or Aj/lais urticae, 

 according to season, and almost certainl}' with the two com- 

 monest Pierids, P. brassirae and P. raj/ae. After crossing these 

 fields the hunter will find h'mself at a "heath," enclosed till quite 

 recently by wire netting to his right, but open to his left. Just before 

 the heath however there opens to the left a broad grass lane which at 

 times provides good sport, especially in the matter of Geometrids. 

 In my early days there was a tradition that Leptoaia sinapis had 

 been taken by Mr. Hamborough, a former Rector of Evenlode, and if 

 the species still lingers in the neighbourhood this lane is just where 

 I should expect (in the light of later-acquired continental knowledge) 

 to find it, though the said tradition pointed to the outskirts of the 

 wood some 100 to 200 yards from the Fourshire Stone, after turning 

 down towards Wolford, as the scene of capture. To return to the 

 heath. Many common species are to be taken there at different 

 .seasons, e.(i., Hesperia iiialrac, Xisoitiadcs tai/es, Aiii/icvlcs sylranits and 

 Adopaea jiava, Polijoiniiiatits. /rf/r/rs',etc., and last year I found ('ociwiu/nipha 

 pamp/iilns to be well worth netting, as it displayed very wide variation 

 both in tint and markings. It would no doubt be worth while 



