of the London dealers. But suddenly there came a flood at 

 the time when the insect was in the larva state, all the broods 

 were drowned, and afterwards there was not a solitary speci- 

 men to gladden the eyes of a collector. I made a pilgrimage 

 to Whittlesea ^Nlere in ISil, on purpose to see the beauties 

 alive, but it rained every day during the week I was there, 

 and I only saw a solitary specimen, which ventured to open 

 its wings during a transient gleam of sunshine." 



These notices by entomologists, who have had personal 

 knowledge of the insect in its native haunts, appear to be 

 well worth preserving, and also a notice of its habits by Mr. 

 Frederick Bond, quoted by Mr. Stainton in his " Manual of 

 British Butterflies and Moths," as follows : " All I can tell 

 you of their habits is this — that they were very active and 

 shy, and would only fly when the sun shone. They would 

 always settle on a thistle when they could find one in bloom, 

 flying off to attack any insect, no matter what, that might 

 come anywhere near them, not always returning, but generally 

 passing on to another place. It was of very little use to 

 follow them if you missed your first stroke with the net, as 

 they went away like the wind, and seldom let you get a second 

 chance ; indeed, it was hard to follow them, as keeping your 

 eyes on them and on the boggy places was rather a difficult 

 job." 



Mr. C. W. Dale in his " Histoiy of British Butterflies " quotes 

 from Loudon's " Natural History " for 1834 (to which I have 

 not access) a statement by Mr. Haworth to the Rev. W. T. 

 Bree, that after a season in which the species had been taken 

 in abundance, " it so happened that the following winter 

 proved to be a very wet one. and the entire tract of land 

 where the coppers had been touud was completely inundated, 

 and actually lay under water for a considerable time. The 

 entomologists deemed that the flood would certainly destroy 

 the coppers, and that the race would become extinct in that 

 part of the country. The next summer, however, the butter- 

 flies were found again on the very same spot as plentifully as 



