I20 LEPWOPTERA. 



visit the woods in July for the purpose of watching their 

 charming flight. This special grace seems to arise from the 

 habit of the insect of sweeping down over the trees to near 

 the ground, then rising a little, gliding into eveiy opening, 

 taking the curves of the branches and high bushes with the 

 perfection of ease, sweeping rapidly away, or soaring over the 

 trees, to return in a few minutes to the same spot, and go 

 through similar evolutions, or perhaps to settle down and 

 feed, with outspread wings, upon a bunch of bramble blossoms 

 by the path side. Unfortunately, this taste for brambles is 

 not conducive to neatness, and the margins of its wings soon 

 get torn, so that specimens, to be in perfection, must be 

 secured very soon after emergence. It never seems to rest 

 upon the ground, and rarely upon the blossoms of other plants, 

 nor is it attracted by foetid substances ; and its place of rest in 

 cloudy weather or at night is on or under the leaves of trees 

 or of the highest bushes. 



It is solely a wood-frequenting species, and principally 

 confined to the southern and eastern counties with us. Most 

 plentiful in the New Forest, but also found in other woods in 

 Hants, and in Dorset, Sussex, and Kent ; yet has totally dis- 

 appeared from some of them within recent years. Such is 

 Ghattenden Wood, Kent, in which, Mr. Fenn tells me, it was 

 formerly comiuon ; and Emsworth, Hants, where Mr. W. 

 Buckler found it plentifully until 1860, in which terribly wet 

 season it totally disappeai-ed. Still found in Suftblk and 

 Essex, and probably in Buckinghamshire, though its known 

 locality there, Black Park, has long been closed against 

 collectors. Formerly found in the south of Lincolnshire and 

 in Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire, and there is even 

 a record of one specimen in Gloucestershire, but no recent 

 captures seem to be recorded from these counties. There can 

 be no doubt that it is one of those species which are most 

 easily exterminated by the close preservation of pheasants. 

 Abroad its range seems to be somewhat restricted — Gentral 

 Europe, Spain, and Southern Russia, 



