THE DECADENCE OF BRITISH RHOPALOCERA. 57 



Sorcx, &c.), as well as batrachiaus and certain reptiles, have 

 probably undergone an increase, these creatures largely consti- 

 tuting the food of several members of the rapacious family of 

 Accijntres alluded to, as is well known to those of the ornitholo- 

 gical fraternity. When the balance of nature is thus so com- 

 pletely upset, something must suffer as a direct result thereof; 

 and this in my idea accounts in a large degree for the growing 

 scarcity and looming final extinction of several members of our 

 already too poor Rhopalocera fauna. 



In support of this contention may be mentioned the fact that 

 in France insects of all orders have undergone an increase since 

 the fashion came into force for small birds to be utilised for 

 millinery purposes, in conjunction with the demand for them as 

 articles of food. This has resulted in the extirpation of nearly 

 all the small birds in the country named, the consequence of 

 which has been for several years past the dreadful destruction of 

 the crops by the undue multiplication of the insect hordes. 



As regards the adverse influences of the climatal conditions, 

 these in my estimation, as previously stated, play quite a 

 subordinate part in the matter, and probably only act indirectly, 

 at least in the majority of instances. They are possibly usually 

 more apparent than real. When, however, a species has been so 

 reduced by the operation of the aforesaid law of amixia, combined 

 with the inimical influences of the organic environment in the 

 manner I have indicated, I am quite willing to concede that the 

 climatal conditions, such as a succession of wet summers or a 

 continuance of mild winters, sometimes successfully closes the 

 chapter. Other adverse influences may be at work at the same 

 time, such as the extirpation of their pabula by drainage and 

 conflagration, and the extension of cultivation, as well as in 

 several other ways which have from time to time been adduced. 

 All these are silently but as surely assisting the adverse 

 influences of the organic environment in their fatal task of 

 extermination. 



Eapacious collectors are undoubtedly responsible for the 

 existing scarcity of several species in certain localities, two 

 instances of which have come under my own knowledge during 

 the last summer. A resident collector at Arley, in Staffordshire, 

 informs me that Melitiea aurinia used to occur in abundance on 

 the opposite side of the Severn before several members of a 

 certain Society recently succeeded in reducing it to the brink of 

 extermination by collecting all the larvre and imagines which 

 they could meet with for several seasons in succession. Another 

 instance was related to me in connection with Lyccena arion in 

 the Cotswolds by an Oxford Don, who attributes the entire 

 exth'pation of this butterfly, in one of its very best stations in 

 the district named, to the rapacity of a particular individual 

 "who scraped up about a bushel of its pabulum" in the hope 



