1887.] 39 



Mr. Carrington, at the Meeting of the South London Entomological 

 Society, attributed it to the severe winter of either 1878 or 1879. It 



L must be borne in mind that the year 1829 had a remarkably wet 

 sunless summer, followed by a most severe winter ; and that the 



I winter of 1813 — 1814 was so severe that an ox was roasted on the 

 Thames. 



I think it is far more probable that the extinction of A. cratcegi 

 is due to the great increase of small birds, the natural consequence of 

 the destruction of so many birds of prey. Kollar states : " Small 

 birds, particularly the titmice, devour the caterpillars soon after they 

 are hatched, as well as in the following spring, w^hen they are dis- 

 persed upon the shoots. So eager are the birds that they break into 

 their nests late in the autumn to obtain them." 



In addition to the eight counties mentioned by Mr. Goss in Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., vol. xxiii, pp. 217 — 219, Aporia cratcecji has occurred in 

 Devonshire (see Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xxiii, p. 256), Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Cambridgeshire, Berkshire (see Curtis' British Entomology : not 

 occurred since 1831), Middlesex, Surrey, Somersetshire, Gloucester- 

 shire, and Worcestershire (1871). The last appears to have been 

 taken at Eestiniog, in North Wales, in 1883 (see Entomologist, vol. 

 XV, p. 255). 



aiaiiTille's Wootton : April, 1887. 



[We alluded to some of the old authors cited by Mr. Dale in a 

 foot-note on p. 277, vol. xxiii, and Mr. Hellins {I. c.) mentioned the 

 influence that the protection of small birds may have had. We are 

 still quite of opinion that A. cratcegi is not to be classed amongst 

 migratory species ; and with reference to Mr. Parfitt's suggestion (Z. c.) 

 that its appearance in Devonshire was due to immigration from the 

 continent, we would ask (assuming the existence of immigration for 

 the sake of argument), why not immigration from Hampshire or 

 some other English county ? — Eds.] 



Aporia cratmgi in Wyre Forest. — A few years ago this handsome butterfly used 

 to occur not uncommonly in the above locality, but I know of no one who has seen 

 or captured a specimen recently. I will endeavour this season to undertake a 

 thorough exploration of the Forest, with a view to " turning it up." I may remark 

 that Wyre Forest is in the Counties of Worcester and Shropshire. I have never 

 heard of the " Black Veined White " being taken in Warwickshire, though there are 

 a few recorded instances of its occurrence in the more northerly County of Stafford- 

 shire, bttt none of recent date. It really seems as if this butterfly had followed in 



