1910.] 163 



hats, and such other missies from the crowd in the street, which had by this 

 time considerably increased, and blocked the traffic. After some time it was 

 dislodged by a well-directed shot and fell into the street, where a general melee 

 took place, each and every one being over anxious to secnre the rai'e and 

 interesting visitor, which eventually got crushed in the scuffle. By this time 

 traffic was at a standstill, but the appearance of a sturdy policeman soon 

 dispersed the crowd." 



I believe the insect in question was a large specimen of Saturnia -pyri, 

 which occurs commonly in this district. A freshly emerged specimen, rather 

 the worse for wear, was brought to me a few days later. — J. J. Jacobs, 

 Gibraltar : May 12th, 1910. 



Ifuirius. 



A Natural History of the British Butterflies, their World-wide 

 Variation and Geographical Dlstribution ; A Text-Book for Students 

 AND Collectors : by J. W. Tutt, F.E.S. Vol. iii, pp. 410, plates liii. London : 

 Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Berlin, Friedlander und Sohn. 1908-1909. 



Another volume of Mr. Tutt's monumental work on our native bvitterfiies 

 has followed its predecessor in good time, and in excellence of execution and 

 general interest it fully maintains the very high standard set by the two 

 volumes tliat have already appeared. Continuing the consideration of the 

 Lycseninse — our familiar " Blue " butterflies — the author here deals with five 

 species only. Of these one, Everes argiades, is among the rarest of stragglers 

 to the South of England in quite recent years, and another, the "Mazarine 

 Blue " of the old collectors, Cyaniris semiargus, has only too probably been lost 

 to our fauna since the last quarter of the nineteenth century at the latest. 

 The history of both these butterflies as British species is treated by Mr. Tutt 

 with his usual exhaustive fulness, and the copious extracts from the older 

 authors from Mouffet to Stainton respecting the former occurrence of C. semi- 

 argus in England, are very interesting reading. The other three butterflies 

 under consideration, Cupido minimus, Plebeius argus, and Agriades tlietis 

 (bellargus) are sufficiently familiar to Lepidopterists, but the most advanced 

 student of the Order will not fail to see his old friends in many novel and 

 pleasing aspects, in the minute and thorough way in which each species is 

 traced through its extreme range of variation and geographical distribution, 

 and its life-history worked out in detail. Hybridity, gynandromorphism, and 

 pathological modification all receive their due share of treatment ; and the 

 question as to which of two closely allied forms the specific name "argus" 

 of Linne is to be referred, a matter that has occvipied the ingenuity of Entomo- 

 logists for more than a century, is, we hope, finally settled in favotu* of our 

 familiar British species. 



As before. Dr. T. A. Chapman has rendered most substantial assistance in 

 working out the life-histories of the species under treatment, as well as in 

 supplying material for biological details, of which the photographs by Mr. F. 

 Noad Clark are reproduced in a large number of excellent half-tone plates. 

 Messrs. Hugh Main and A. E. Tonge contribute illustrations of the species in 



