176 BUTTERFLIES 



Its Rarity in England 



In many books this species is spoken of by its English 

 name Camberwell Beauty. It is so called because it was 

 first observed in the neighborhood of Camberwell in the 

 county of Surrey, England. It seems that in that 

 country it is a very rare species. This is a bit curious con- 

 sidering the fact that in America it is so extremely abund- 

 ant. In his attractive little book quoted above, Mr. 

 Adams begins the discussion of this species with this 

 statement: "This is the crowning glory of the British 

 butterfly collector's cabinet, and a happy man is he who 

 gets a perfect specimen of an insect which is at once so rare 

 and so beautiful," And later in the same discussion is this 

 further statement concerning the scarcity of the species: 

 "In neither the larva nor the pupa state has the insect been 

 found, we believe, in this country where its appearance 

 occurs, except just here and there a single specimen or two, 

 at long and uncertain intervals. About eighty years ago 

 it was seen in many parts of the kingdom and again in 

 1819, but not since then although almost every year one or 

 more specimens are taken or seen." 



A curious fact in regard to the Mourning-cloak, as found 

 in England, is that the border around the wings seems to be 

 much more generally white than it is with us. J. O. 

 Westwood in his book on British butterflies describes the 

 margin as of a white or whitish color and other writers 

 speak of the same fact, Kirby in his "Butterflies and 

 Moths" makes this comparative statement: "The border 

 is whitest in British specimens, and perhaps yellowest in 

 American ones." He speaks of it also as one of the 

 rarest British species. It is sometimes called by the 



