THE CAMBERWELL BEAUTY. 397 



after day, and never even see a specimen. Then, just where 

 they are least expected, and when no means are at hand for 

 capturing them, they make their appearance— and generally 

 their escape — in a manner that is calculated to test the temper 

 severely. 



In the present instance, the sudden appearance of such an 

 insect at his very feet was too much for the discoverer, and, 

 hat in hand, he dashed down the cutting after the Butterfly. 

 Of course, having taken him to the bottom, it ascended to the 

 top, and so on, giving him a chase of a quarter of an hour 

 perpetually up and down the cutting, and at last getting away 

 over a hedge, leaving its pursuer breathless on the ground, and 

 his hat and clothes generally in a more than dishevelled state. 

 In his letter to me relating the circumstance, he says that if 

 anyone wants to take a Turkish bath, and is not within reach 

 of one, he recommends a chase of the Camberwell Beauty in a 

 deep railway cutting with very steep sides. 



The colour of this magnificent insect is rich brown, shot with 

 deep purple. The wings are edged with a broad grey-white 

 band, just inside which is a row of blue spots. This is a very 

 plentiful insect in America and on the Continent, and speci- 

 mens are often taken from France and passed off as English. 

 They can, however, be detected by the colour of the white 

 band, which in genuine English specimens is grey-white, and 

 in foreign specimens yellow-white. 



It is a very capricious insect in its appearance in this 

 country. Owing to the great and rapidly increasing number of 

 entomologists in this country, and the many periodicals which 

 are devoted to Natural History, scarcely a specimen of this 

 conspicuous Butterfly can be at large without being seen and 

 recorded. It seldom happens that a single specimen is thus 

 mentioned ; but, if one entomologist happens to be fortunate 

 enough to capture an Antiopa on Monday, several others are 

 nearly sure to be caught within the week, and then no more 

 seem to make their appearance. I never had the good fortune 

 to see one of these Butterflies at liberty, and very much suspect 

 that I never shall. 



On Woodcut XLI. P'ig. 2, is seen a profile portrait of the 

 Comma Butterfly, scientifically termed G. album, or the 



