THE COTTESWOLD ARION. 175 



to indicate "is only worth going for as evidence of degeneration. 

 . . A Birmingham man was over there just before the 

 war, and the form he found there was not uncommon, but 

 reduced in size and coloration most extraordinarily ; and this was 

 not from one year's taking only. It seems to me a very unusual 

 •case, and one cannot quite account for it." 



On arrival at Gloucester the weather was all that could 

 tempt the quarry abroad. The season was backward, and this was 

 in my favour. But I had hardly been two days in that ancient 

 city when the weather broke : grey skies and " a rushing, mighty 

 wind " succeeded the universal calm blue ; and when I found 

 myself at what I expected to be the appropriate locality, not 

 an insect was flying. A few Antkrocera trifolii clung tenaciously 

 to the flower-heads and as many disconsolate Coenonympha 

 pamphilKx rose from the rough grass. The ant-hills of Myrmica 

 scabrinodis were there, the heaps sparingly invested with Thymus 

 nerpyllum. On the way out a passing cyclist had disturbed a 

 privet bush, from which rose several Thecla w-album, as it 

 seemed, and that was all. I prowled about for a couple of 

 hours until I was fairly blown off the ground. 



So much for June 26th ; and the prospect of the next day was 

 hardly more encouraging when I admitted daylight through the 

 window of the very ancient inn which has housed pilgrims of 

 all sorts for the past five centuries. I may add that the only 

 conveyance available was a pre-war '" push-bike," the property of 

 the boots — a small man whose legs must have been some 

 inches shorter than mine. I am not likely to forget this 

 " infernal machine." I did most of the {)ushmg myself up the 

 Cotteswolds, and even more wearisome was the labour of holding 

 back on those downward " shoots " which land you from the 

 heaven-kissing hills to the valley beneath — on your head if you 

 are not cautious to exasperation. However, things went very 

 differently on the 27th. The wind was more than a cap-full, but 

 I had the cheerful company of Mr. C. Granville Clutterbuck as 

 guide, philosopher, and friend, and I owe it to him entirely 

 that I realised my dream, and achieved the felicity of observing 

 L. arion in its native haunts. We should have done better had 

 the sun been a little more prodigal of its favours. At all events, 

 there were intervals of brilliance ; and then the several hill-sides 

 visited were alive with Lepidoptera of all sizes — at least, so Mr. 

 Clutterbuck assures me, for his activities centred upon the 

 •' micros," and judging from the rapidity with which he wielded 

 his net he should have bagged a plenty of the " wee folk." A 

 prolonged study of Army Forms for the past five years must have 

 impaired my sight, for I simply couldn't spot the most obvious 

 Tineid, or appreciate on the wing the elusive Tortrices which 

 my companion boxed and boxed again as it were from thin air. 



The Cotteswold country in which arion lingers closely resem- 



