NOTES AND ORRKRVATIONS. 137 



my ambition to capture the butterflies became one with my desire to 

 visit the places. In the years tliat have passed since tliose days of 

 fresh enthusiasm, I have added to my collection most of the insects 

 without havinf:; visited the notable localities, with but one or two 

 exceptions. The truth is that these lists, which have, year by year, 

 become longer, are simply the names of places where the insects 

 have been taken at one time or another, and it does not by any 

 means follow that a butterfly found in a given place twenty, ten, 

 even five years ago, is still to be had for the mere journeying thither. 

 By far the wiser plan for every ambitious entomologist to pursue is 

 to carefully study the insects in the place where he happens to be, 

 rather than ndulge vain cravings to visit places where they may 

 have been. Among the spots which were tlius early enshrined in mj^ 

 memory was Monks Wood, Huntingdonshire, which, in every list, 

 was given as a locality for quite a number of rare species. One 

 realises now that it was not so much the place, as the man, con- 

 stantly and closely on the watch, who lived in the district, kept 

 careful notes and gave them to the world ; but, nevertlieless, when an 

 opportunity of visiUng the place occurred, I looked forward, not- 

 withstanding that I Had already filled all the blanks in my cabinet 

 which Monks Wood seemed representative of, with a curious sensa- 

 tion of having at last attained to one of my early ambitions. It was 

 a fine, albeit cloudy day in early July when, in company with an 

 enthusiastic botanico-entomological friend, I cycled along the fine 

 surface of the Great North Eoad from x\lconbury Weston to the 

 narrow by-road which leads to the extensive woods that bear the 

 time-honoured name. This part of the county entirely belies its 

 general reputation as a fen district. Hills, quite steep enough to 

 render walking a necessity at times, overlook pleasantly undulating 

 stretches of cornfield and meadow, with here and there deep green 

 patches of well-grown woodland, dense, if not of very great extent. 

 To the eastward, it is true, there stretches away a monotonous level, 

 now rich corn and meadow land, yet still strikingly suggestive of its 

 former marshy state, w'hen the swallowtail was an almost unnoticed 

 beauty to be seen over the whole district, and where the much-to-be- 

 envied entomologist of those days could capture his fill of the now 

 extinct Large Copper. A couple of miles of level and somewhat 

 uninteresting road brought us to the edge of the woods, just outside 

 of which the first indication of the distinctive character of the local 

 flora was visible in the shape of some well-grown specimens of the 

 Angelica springing from a ditch filled with the ordinary vegetation 

 of a moist position in any part of the south. A few^ yards beyond 

 this we entered the woods, which are in two large blocks separated 

 by a broad meadow, the road running on the inside edge of the most 

 southerly half. We rode slowly along, keeping our eyes open for a 

 suitable break in the undergrowth to permit of pushing our machines 

 into cover. This appeared shortly in the form of a circular opening 

 covei'ed with tall grasses and meadowsweet, and splashed all over 

 with gorgeous spikes of purple loosestripe. We entered and stayed 

 a few moments, seeing nothing, however, but a few specimens of 

 Einnephele (janira) jurtina and A])}ianto2yus hypcranthus. There 

 was, however, an abundance of the common Plume Moth, M. ptero- 



ENTOM. — JUNE, 1920. N 



