SA TV RID. E. 239 



gravel pits, tlie igides of large ditclies, and the sunny sea-face 

 of coast sand-hills, are all commonly frequented. No butter- 

 fly introduces itself more constantly to the notice of passers 

 along a country road, since its habit is to start suddenly and 

 swiftly up, and fly on a little way, then settle on a bare spot, 

 spring up again as soon as approached, and keep a short 

 distance in advance, in a most persistent manner, so that as 

 a wayside companion it is hardly to be surpassed. Formerly 

 one of our most abundant butterflies, and in some districts 

 may still be considered so, but has a trick of disappearing 

 suddenly, and totally, from disti-icts in which it had previously 

 been most plentiful, for which no sufficient explanation has 

 yet been found. Dr. F. B. White says that at Perth it used to 

 be common enough, but to the best of his belief has not been 

 seen there for many years, and that no reason appears for its 

 departure or extinction. Mr. J. E. Robson says, with reference 

 to an extensive district round Hartlepool, Durham : " This 

 is the most extraordinary disappearance of all ! It was one 

 of our very commonest butterflies! It disappeared quite 

 suddenly, in 1860 I think, but I have no record of the date. 

 Not a single specimen has ever been seen here since." 

 Mr. J. Henderson wrote, in 1887, that although it formerly 

 abounded in Oxfordshire, he had not seen a specimen in his 

 own neighbourhood since 1874 ; and the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge 

 gives a similar account with regard to his own district, Ware- 

 ham, Dorsetshire, where, though at one time plentiful, it had 

 disappeared totally for nearly thirty years. But in this case 

 there is a change for the better ; two specimens were seen 

 near Wareham in 1891, and in other parts of Dorset it is 

 again abundant, so that it may now be recovering lost ground. 

 It appears still to be generally common in the Southern and 

 Western counties of England and in Wales, and plentiful in 

 the Eastern counties and in the Fen districts of the Midland. 

 Northward it becomes more local, or, where generally dis- 

 tributed, less common, but is not scarce in the south of Scot- 

 land and has even been seen as far north as Aberdeenshire. 



