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JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. VII. No. 11. March 15th, 1896. 



Coenonympha tiphon (davus) at Home. 



By J. E. ROBSON, F.E.S. 



In Mr. Barrett's Hritisli LcpiilopU'ra he states that C. davus has 

 been externiinated in Northumberland. My attention was called to 

 this error while I was hunting up the various records of this butterfly, 

 for my forthcoming ('ataliif/uf uf tlic Lepiduptrra of Nortliwnbciiaml and 

 Durham. This led me to turn up the notes I made three or four years 

 ago, when I captured this butterfly in Northumberland, and they are 

 now given to your readers, as I fear any future communications from 

 me, will be more in the nature of past experiences than present 

 observations. 



On Wednesday, July IGth, 1890, I had arranged to visit the 

 Northumberland moors, if the weather permitted. The continued 

 rain of nearly a month before made it doubtful if the latter condition 

 would enable me to make the journey, but the previous day, the 

 anniversary of the lachrymose Saint Swithin, was bright and fine and 

 cloudless, and I rose at 3 a.m. with every prospect of a grand 

 collecting day. The trains were exceedingly awkward. The earliest 

 from Hartlepool did not reach NeAvcastle till ten minutes after the 

 north train left that city, and I had to ingratiate myself with the 

 station-master to obtain permission to travel by an empty train that 

 ran to Ferry Hill Junction to meet the mail. This landed me in the 

 northern metropolis at 5.50 a.m. The train by which I had to proceed 

 on my journey did not leave Newcastle till 8.20 a.m., so I had a 

 delightful two hours and a half to wait. I took a long ramble through 

 the streets, but the unopened shops were not attractive. I read the 

 morning papers, had breakfast, " dawdling " as much as possible over 

 it all. At last the weary time was over, and I took my train for the 

 north. Station after station was passed in rapid succession, Rilling- 

 worth reminding one of Stephenson, to whose great invention I was 

 then so much indebted, and without which my capture of C. darux 

 would not have been easy of accomplishment. Place names began to 

 have an unfamiliar sound, and Northumbrian as I am, I could not give 

 the fine roll to the R that I heard as Cramlington and other sonorous 

 names were called out by the porters. Morpeth reached, a change of 

 carriage took place, and I found myself on the North British Railway. 

 The railway from Morpeth is a single line only, and it was rather ocld 

 to see the " staff" handed to and from the station-master before the 

 train could proceed. This always seemed a clumsy contrivance, but 



