248 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and caused me to pass several hours for two days vigorously 

 thrashing whitethorn hushes, entirely without result ; whereas 

 late on the second day, thanks to some correct information 

 obtained from another lepidopterist, I found I had been working 

 unsuccessfully within a few hundred yards of perhaps one of the 

 most prolific localities for the species in the country. I had 

 been thinking of Barrett's sentence, " It sits more particularly 

 in hawthorn when grown as trees." I took this to mean the 

 more or less solitary large hawthorns that are plentiful enough 

 in certain parts of the New Forest, and I now know that I might 

 have beaten them for a month without result. 



The habitats of P. cristana par excellence are the dense 

 thickets of blackthorn, whitethorn, crab apple, and other trees 

 and shrubs that exist in certain portions of the New and Epping 

 Forests and elsewhere. It does not care for the outskirts, although 

 one may get occasional examples there; but if one wants many 

 specimens, it is necessary to get into the heart of the thickets. 

 This is generally not difficult, for there are usually cattle or other 

 paths that will conduct one there. Once arrived in the dim 

 recesses of these thickets, the collector will find the blackthorn 

 and whitethorn bushes almost killed and covered with lichens, 

 owing to absence of light and air, with, in certain places, great 

 accumulations of dead wood. 



It is necessary to be provided with a strong thick stick, which 

 should be not less than 5 ft. in length, and with it to give the 

 hiding place a sound whack, and not one only, several are desir- 

 able, for the quarry usually requires a great deal of rousing ; in 

 fact I have not infrequently worked a thicket, from which 

 ordinarily I have obtained many specimens, twice in one day, 

 and have found almost as many on the second occasion as on 

 the first. When disturbed the moth is recognisable at a glance ; 

 it usually appears grey — although some of the reddish forms 

 show brownish — and looks fully its actual size. I may say here 

 that the only other moth usually to be met with in its haunts 

 in any numbers is Teras contaminana; this is a somewhat smaller 

 and more tawny-looking species on the wing, and has a more 

 rapid darting tiight. 



When knocked out and forced to take wing P. cristana behaves 

 very remarkably. It at first appears dazed, as if it had been 

 suddenly aroused out of deep slumber and was not fully con- 

 scious of what had happened. Whilst in this state, which will be 

 for one or two seconds, it does not make much progress, and 

 if the spot is clear of undergrowth it can be easily captured. 

 When once it has taken its bearings it will usually make for 

 the nearest available cover, which is not generally more than 

 a yard or two away, and if this is once reached you may say 

 good-bye to it. 



If the moth is dislodged by a slight tap of the bush on which 



