1896.] 



177 



so defective I took a reliable friend with me in order to make as sure as possible of 

 not overlooking the species. We reached the " Stroud End " about one o'clock and 

 spent nearly three hours carefully working all the best known localities. To me 

 these are so clear and defined that, blind as I am, I could hardly miss seeing a 

 " large blue " were it there ; my friend is keen sighted, twenty years younger than 

 myself, sharp and active and an ardent entomologist. However, our search was 

 fruitless. In a very few spots the wild thyme was plentiful, but the general 

 character of the vegetation has greatly changed from what it was 10 or 15 years 

 ago : where a fine thin turf with broad patches of thyme then abounded, now there 

 is a strong growth of heavy pasture grasses with hardly a sprig of thyme to be seen, 

 much as Mr. Bignell described Bolt Head in 1884. 



After satisfying ourselves that it was in vain to seek L. Arion here, we proceeded 

 to the locality discovered by my son in 1889. Whether this lies N. S. E. or W. I 

 do not say for obvious reasons, but we did not reach it until evening was closing. 



Next morning we visited the place again but found the butterfly rare and 

 practically the species was over. My friend netted two, and being thus assured we 

 were on the right spot I left him and took a new departure in order to investigate 

 the remainder of the old known grounds. 



The result of my friend's work may as well be stated first. He saw some twelve 

 or fifteen of which he only pinned six, turning the others captured loose again. 



I returned some distance, and for the love of old times visited the spot where, 

 thirty years before (save five days), I first saw L. Arion alive. This is an open 

 space at the bottom of a small valley. None were visible there, so I went upwards 

 through the woods, and some three to four hundred yards off, in another opening, 

 saw the species alive again. Further up were more clearings, and hovering over a 

 fine patch of thyme in one of these I found a second L. Arion, which I netted, 

 a pretty good specimen and the only one I have pinned for sixteen or seventeen 

 years. However, I was satisfied ; my first (entomological) love is not dead yet, 

 precarious as her future existence may be. From here I worked on to the 

 other old " Head Quarters" (Ent. Mo. Mag., xxi, p. 117). I expect few people 

 know the glades and openings of these woods better than myself, and I " zigzagged " 

 all through them and over all the old localities. A few worn L. Icarus, an occasional 

 skipper and a few common moths cropped up, but of L. Arion no trace whatever. 

 Of course C. pamphilus was everywhere and an occasional E. ^geria. Here, as at 

 the " Stroud End," the vegetation has changed and in a similar manner, but I may 

 notice that in many places the rock rose was in greater profusion and more flowered 

 than I ever remember to have seen it. After a long and careful search with no 

 result, I retraced my steps, and close to where I took the first I netted a much 

 worn female and immediately released her, so my record for the two days stands 

 one seen, one turned loose and one pinned ; my friend's, six pinned and some six or 

 ten others netted and released or seen. 



Now a few words on the probable future of L. Arion.' I fear sadly that its 

 extinction is only a matter of time. From what has been shown (Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 1884), and later observations, it appears that the species has practically disap|)eared, 

 from many places where it was formerly, so to say, abundant, and that over the large 

 district noted by Mr. Goss, only a very few linger amongst the wood clearings. 



