﻿THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BUCKS. CHILTERNS. 121 



but known to occur a week later in previous years " (A. J. 

 Spiller). 



29. B. selene, Schiff. This is one of the Chiltern butterflies 

 which has apparently been ousted from its former haunts in the 

 eastern area. Mr. Peachell does not include it in his list (m 

 litt.) of butterflies 7wt taken in the High Wycombe district, so I 

 conclude he met with it there before 1900; and Mr. Spiller 

 reports " a few at Chinnor (just over the county border) formerly. 

 Not seen this year, 1914." I have no personal knowledge of its 

 appearance in the Chilterns ; but it duly figures in the records 

 of the Rev. H. H. Crewe for Drayton-Beauchamp and Aston- 

 Clinton ; and of the Rev. J. Greene for Halton. Probably 

 haunts the southern slope woods, as it is reported from the 

 neighbourhood of the Chalfonts. 



30. MeliUea anrinia, v. Rott. I was going to exclude this 

 charming butterfly, so far as the Chilterns are concerned, from 

 the number of species occurring there, when I received from 

 Mr. Spiller welcome confirmation of its recent appearance well 

 within the western extremity of the Bucks, hills. I have no 

 intention of divulging the locality, as the species is already 

 sufficiently rare. But at some previous time it must have 

 enjoyed a wide range to the east, as both Drayton-Beauchamp 

 and Halton are given as localities by the authorities quoted in 

 Newman's 'British Butterflies.' Mr. Spiller remarks that the 

 place chosen by the survivors in his direction is a puzzle, as 

 they haunt the highest ground in the neighbourhood. The only 

 locality communicated to me for aui-itiia anywhere within twenty 

 miles is in a meadow by the side of the Chess River, in the 

 county of Herts. I suspect the colony discovered by Mr. 

 Spiller had been gradually driven from the low-lying ground 

 by the encroachments of agriculture, or of sheep pasturage. 

 But, as he points out, in the Alps M. aurinia, or rather its 

 ancestral form var. merope, Prunner, climbs to the snow 

 line. 



[M. athalia, v. Rott. A Chiltern butterfly of old time 

 recorded by the Rev. Joseph Greene from Halton, but Mr. 

 Rothschild, who has a thorough knowledge of the locality as it 

 is to-day, informs me that athalia has certainly disappeared, and 

 that its chosen ground has been ploughed in. Mr. Spiller has 

 searched the western ranges for it ; I have spent many hours in 

 likely-looking spots ; but, until we can discover woods where 

 Melampi/rum -pratense also survives, I fear that our efforts to 

 restore the Heath Fritillary to the Chiltern list will be in vain. 

 I am quite aware that other food-plants are given by the 

 authorities, but I have observed abroad that, as a rule, athalia 

 is really abundant — and it swarms in many places — chiefly where 

 this particular plant flourishes.] 



31. Pyrameis cardui, L. Common in cardui years, but other- 



