﻿THE BUTTERFLIES OF BUCKS. CHILTERNS. 27 



remain, an unspoilt land of cbalk down and beech forest, divid- 

 ing the Vale of Aylesbury from the gravel and clay lands of the 

 southern division — hardly less beautiful in their way than the 

 Chilterns themselves. I first made acquaintance of it when the 

 " safety " cycle gave access to " fresh woods and pastures new," 

 that is to say, about 1896 ; and since then no year has passed 

 that I have not spent one or two days in spring, in summer, 

 and in autumn with the Chiltern butterflies and other day-flying 

 Lepidoptera. Latterly, I understand, collectors from the north 

 have camped among them under canvas, and I venture to hope, 

 therefore, that the publication of these remarks will induce a 

 supplement to my records ; for, despite the exquisite nature of 

 the uplands and forest of the locality under review, I can find 

 in the magazines and reports of our Natural History Societies 

 but scanty notices even of the butterfly fauna. 



In the mid-Victorian period, the Rev. Joseph Greene, author 

 of the entertaining 'Insect Hunter's Companion,' worked Halton. 

 He is quoted by Stainton in his * Manual of British Butterflies 

 and Moths ' (1857), by whom also several species are reported 

 from Wavendon, near Newport Pagnell, beyond the scope of my 

 immediate investigations. At the same period, and later, the 

 Eev. H. Harpur Crewe, the well-remembered authority on the 

 Eupithecias, and a frequent contributor to the ' Entomologist,' 

 interested himself with the Lepidoptera of Drayton-Beauchamp 

 and Aston-CHnton, at the extreme eastern edge of the Bucks. 

 Chilterns. His observations are recorded in Newman's ' British 

 Butterflies,' which bears no date on the title cover, but was 

 pubhshed, I believe, in 1871. Between this and the coming of 

 Tntt's monumental ' British Lepidoptera,' no systematic attempt 

 appears to have been made in an entomological work to collate 

 the Chiltern butterflies, though there are occasional notices of 

 the neighbourhood to be found in this and other entomological 

 magazines to which I may draw attention,* as well as Mr. 

 Barrett's list in the ' Victoria History of Buckinghamshire.' 



It is not my intention to particularise localities explored. 

 As long as a commercial value attaches to specimens, the evil 

 of too intimate directions is obvious. I will say this much, how- 

 ever, that my personal knowledge, such as it is, is confined to 

 the section of the Chilterns which unites Wendover with the 

 "Wycombes, and the gradual sloping country southward as far as 

 the Chalfonts. 



A more diversified landscape it is difficult to imagine. The 

 one feature lacking is water, and in dry seasons, such as 

 those of 1893, 1911, and 1914, the pastures and downs suffer 



* E.g. "Contribution to the List of Macro-Lepidoptera of Bucks.," 

 E. W. earlier, M.D., B.Sc, 'Entomologists' Rpcord,' vol. xxi., pp. 285-G. 

 "List of August Diurni" (i(Z. vol. xxii., pp. 44-45). Mr. Kenneth Raynor 

 does not deal with that part of the county described by me here. 



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