266 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



reasonable price, an artificial substance resembling it more 

 closely than do sugar or treacle, he, as well as collectors, would 

 probably find it highly profitable. 



Market Drayton, September 12th, 1895. 



NOTES ON THE LEPIDOPTEEA OF THE MACCLESFIELD 



DISTRICT. 



By Eiohakd South. 



The investigations I have been able to make into the lepi- 

 dopterous fauna of the country around the ancient borough of 

 Macclesfield, in the county of Cheshire (elevation 500 feet), have 

 not so far been of a very satisfactory character. Probably the 

 generally unfavourable state of the weather during the fourteen 

 months I have resided here has been the primary cause of the 

 very poor collection made. I am sure that under more suitable 

 circumstances, especially as regards meteorological conditions, 

 some of the localities visited would yield a larger number of 

 species, to say nothing of specimens, than I have yet had the 

 fortune to obtain in them. 



I especially expected to have made some good captures on 

 Danes Moss. This is a tract of boggy land situated about a mile 

 south of the town, and, although of somewhat limited area now, 

 was once of considerable extent. At the present time by far the 

 larger portion of it has been reclaimed and is under grass, 

 cereals, or vegetables, principally the first. Still there remains 

 an abundant space of original moss-land to nurture and har- 

 bour those species of Lepidoptera which usually flourish in such 

 situations. Although extensively drained by trenches, and 

 consequently less boggy perhaps than formerly, the flora of the 

 present day is probably very little altered from what it was 

 centuries ago. On the drier parts there is a quantity of heather 

 with a little bilberry, and in other parts the cotton-grass grows 

 in great luxuriance. Cranberry is not uncommon in several 

 places, there is a liberal sprinkling of bog-myrtle here and there, 

 and a plentiful growth of bushy sallow and birch. 



The moorlands are extensive but somewhat distant. The 

 nearest is about eight miles, and all uphill to get there, as it lies 

 at an elevation of about 1700 feet. An unpleasant feature of 

 collecting on these moors is that rain often falls there, even when 

 the weather at lower elevations is fair. I have only worked two 

 localities on the moors. One of these is beyond the ' Cat and 

 Fiddle,' an inn noted as being the highest licensed house in 

 England ; the other is called ' Ludchurch.' The first is partly 

 in Cheshire and partly in Derbyshire, and the other is in 



