NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 337' 



Autumnal Collecting at Freshwater. — As indicated in my last 

 brief notes from the Isle of Wight (ante, p. 253), I was compelled by 

 circumstances over which I had no control, to leave the lepidoi)tera of 

 my favourite resort in peace, so far as my own efforts went, during the 

 w^hole of August and the first week of September. Possibly this may 

 have been a blessing in disguise, as, during the leisure at my disposal 

 whilst away from it, I was enabled to secure in Guernsey a long series 

 of the Caradrina which occurs occasionally at sugar on the cliffs of our 

 southern coasts, viz., C. superstes, by means of which series, since dis- 

 tributed in twos and threes amongst our active collectors, I trust that 

 ere long this species hitherto passed over may be proved to occur else- 

 where than on Freshwater and Culver cliffs, Avhere my own two and Mr. 

 L. B. Front's one, British specimens, have respectively been captured. 

 During the first part of August, Freshwater certainly did not suffer by 

 my absence, as Mr. Geo. 0. Day spent some little time there, and those 

 who know the energy of this gentleman, especially when added to 

 it, must be counted the seductive attractions of " Day's Elixir," will 

 feel that my absence was fully avenged. Unfortunately, August is not 

 altogether the best month of the year there, although Mr. Day was fortunate 

 in securing a magnificent dark (almost black) form of a second brood of 

 Hadena dentina, and whilst friends of my own continued working with 

 a perseverance really admirable and worthy of ample reward, yet, 

 with the exception of a few very fine Agrotis ohelisca, the " bag " of the- 

 month was more remarkable for quantity than for quality. I was 

 induced to somewhat hasten my own return to the scene of action by 

 an old-standing promise to meet my friend Mr. F. J. Hanbury 

 there so soon as the usual autumnal "good things" were well "under 

 weigh ; " but an important business engagement unavoidably detained 

 me, so I had to test the merits of amateur maps and sketches, to 

 indicate the spots to repay work, against those of a "personally conducted' ' 

 order. Here I must acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. Hanbury in re- 

 turn, in keeping me well posted up in the lists of captures, and when 

 as a " capper " on the same I learnt of the important caj^ture of Leucania 

 vitellina at Brockenhurst in the last week of August, I felt it to be now 

 or never, and making all arrangements by Avire, I returned at once, 

 knowing that Freshwater could never be behind, when rarities of the 

 calibre of vitellina were to be taken in so hackneyed a ground as the 

 New Forest. My confidence in my old sjDOt was fully justified, although 

 by the irony of fate, wind and tide so delayed the " fast and powerful " 

 mail steamer, that the down train at Southampton which I had hoiked 

 to catch, left before our arrival, and I had the j^leasure of waiting two 

 hours with visions of vitellina floating before me. It was a perfect 

 night for collecting, warm and dry, conditions evidently suited to 

 psychological communication, for ujion my ultimate arrival too late for 

 action, the prompt reply to my eager question as to what the capture of 

 the evening had been was " Vitellina, of course ! " Such is fate, but 

 even fate is powerless before the kind courtesy of the fortunate captor, 

 Mr. Hanbury, who, upon the capture of a second specimen a few days 

 later within the same locality, whilst exchanging "grounds" with 

 myself for the evening, upon a system of mutual assistance which can 

 be recommended to all entomological friends, veiy generously allowed 

 the specimen to pass into my own possession, where it now saves from 

 utter loneliness the specimen captured by myself a few years previously. 



