NOTES ON LYC/ENA ARION. 37 



flower-spikes above the bracken ; here and there, behind the 

 shelter of a dilapidated stone wall, grew dwarfed branil)les; 

 and from the turf, just above the clifi's and riglu down their 

 face to the rocks below, sprung countless tuds of thrift. 



Upon reaching this charming spot Arion was one of the 

 first bulterflies I noticed; there was no mistaking it: its size 

 and brilliant appearance at once attracted my attention as it 

 Hew swiltly towards me, and suddenly settled on a sprig of 

 heather quite close to my feet. For a (ew moments 1 gazed 

 at it wiih rapture, for what exquisite delight one ex|)eriences 

 in meeting for the first time in its native haunts a species one 

 has never seen before alive, especially such a lovely insect as 

 this ; but my desire to possees it speedily overcame all my 

 admiration; so with a sweep of my net I captured, and then 

 boxed it. In the course of the day I secured about three 

 dozen, and might have taken more had 1 desired to do so, 

 but found many of them worn : these of course were allowed 

 their freedom. As far as I could judge I should have been 

 on the spot at least ten days earlier, although this species 

 probably soon gets injured when flying amongst the furze, 

 for many, otherwise in perfect condition, had small pieces 

 chipped from their wings, showing that tliey must have 

 flown, or been blown, against the prickly bushes. 



The flight of this butterfly has been described by Dr. Bree 

 (Zool. 1852, p. 3350) as resembling that of Choriobius Pam- 

 philus and Saiyrus Tithoniis, — both weak flyers ; but, as far 

 as my observations go, 1 cannot corroborate this, for I found 

 it anything but easy to catch, and should call it decidedly 

 swift and strong on the wing. 



1 generally box all small butterflies alive, finding that after 

 a few moments in the dark they become perfectly quiet; 

 then upon carefully raising the lid they can be seen, and if 

 worn liberated again. It is a pity to pinch these fragile 

 creatures in the net, for, even suj)posing they are perfect, this 

 process must more or less damage them; and should they be 

 unfit for the cabinet they are thrown away. Thus scores of 

 fertile females, which may not have deposited a tenth portion 

 of their eggs, are destroyed; and by this means a local 

 species becomes rapidly exterminated. Possibly some ento- 

 mologists will say that butterflies injure themselves when 

 boxed alive ; but if large boxes are used this will scarcely 



