BUTTERFLY HUNTING IN THE NEW FOREST. 51 



Habitat. — South Africa ; Cape Town (Brit. Mus.). 

 The moderately robust and distinctly pilose antennae distin 

 guish this species from others of the genus. 



BUTTEEFLY HUNTING IN THE NEW FOREST AND 

 ELSEWHERE IN 1917. 



By .J. J. Lister, F.R.S., F.E.S. 



But there remains a peace of thine 

 Man did not make and cannot mar. 



— 31. Arnold. 



On Tuesday, July 3rd, I went with Dr. and Mrs. Keynes to 

 the New Forest for a week's butterfly hunting. It was a 

 resplendent evening as we passed through London, and even the 

 dismal stations between the Lea Valley and Liverpool Street 

 were transformed and glorified in the rays of the setting sun. 

 It was, indeed, too bright, for clouds had gathered as we ran 

 down the slope of the chalk past Winchester, and a south-east 

 wind portended rain. It fell in the night and next morning, the 

 wind shifting round to the north. On Thursday afternoon (5th) 

 the wind changed to the west, and we had bright sunny days 

 till the end of the week. Mr. Rowlaud-Brown joined us for two 

 days' hunting on Friday night, but unfortunately Sunday and 

 Monday were again wet. From Tuesday onward, however, we 

 had fine weather. 



Brockenhurst was our headquarters, but most of our hunting 

 was near Denny Lodge, within easy reach of Beaulieu Road 

 Station. About this keeper's house is a noble group of trees, 

 over a mile wide from north to south, mainly beeches and oaks, 

 standing on higher ground, which forms a fine feature as seen 

 across the open undulating plain which lies to the east. This is 

 covered with heather, heath, and low furze (browsed down, I 

 suppose, by the Forest ponies), with sweet-gale and cotton-grass 

 in the swampy hollows, and straggling clumps of small pine trees 

 scattered here and there. A carpet of green bracken spread out 

 over the plain far beyond the high trees. The water drains south- 

 eastward into the Beaulieu River and southward to the Lymington 

 AVater. We also found good hunting to the west of Brockenhurst 

 about the Ober Water and in the plantations to the north of it, 

 and paid two visits to the beautiful region known as Queen's 

 Bower. 



The following are the more interesting features of our spoils. 



Chrysophanus phlceas. I met my first specimen of the year, 

 a representative doubtless of the second brood, near Denny 

 Lodge, but we saw no others. 



Plebeius cegon swarmed on the heathery plain between Beaulieu 

 Road Station and Denny Lodge ; males and females in perfect 

 condition. They rose about us in scores as we walked, and many 



