420 



history.* The Ringed Snake, on the contrary, seemingly the less 

 plentiful of the two in this neighbourhood, abounds in Cambridge- 

 shire, especially in the fenny districts, where it attains a gi-eat size. 

 This may be accounted for by a difference in their habits, the viper 

 preferring a dry soil, the ringed snake thriving best in wet or 

 damp places. 



I have never collected the insects of this neighbourhood myself, 

 and can therefore say veiy little about them. Mr. TeiTy has given 

 a list of the Lepidoptera alone, including 541 species. This list 

 appears a tolerably full one, and probably contains the gi'eater part 

 of those inhabiting the district. Some of the Papilionidse, how- 

 ever, of which fifty-five species are given, judging from a paper by 

 Mr. Herbert Jenner Fust, on the " Distribution of Lepidoptera in 

 Britain," t are perhaps doubtful. Mr. H. J. Fust only assigns 46 

 species of Papilionidse to the whole of Somerset, besides five that 

 he considers doubtful, and four of these doubtful ones, viz., 

 the swallow-tail (Papilio machaon), the brown hairstreak (Thecla 

 hetulce), the mazarine blue (PolyommaUis acts), and the silver- 

 spotted skipper (Hesjieria comma), are included in Mr. Terry's 

 list. At the same time it is possible that they may have occurred 

 in the Bath district in rai'e instances. 



Though I am not able to make any direct comparison between 

 the insects of Somerset and the insects of Cambridgeshire, there 

 is one circumstance I cannot help mentioning, which has often 

 struck me since I first exchanged the east of England for the west, 

 and that is the greater number of insects in the eastern counties 

 than in the western. I am not now speaking of the nixmber of 

 species in any particular family. There may be no great 

 difference here, though I suspect the actual number of species 

 preponderates in the eastern counties. And this idea seems borne 

 out by the statements of others. Mr. Stainton, in a paper on the 

 " Geographical Distribution of British Buttei-flies," remarks that 

 there are fewer species of butterflies in the western counties of 

 England than in the eastera."! Mr. Bates also, in bis Address to 



• See Proc. Bath Nat. Hist. Field Club, vol. 2., p. 299. 

 t Ent. Trans., 3rd Ser., vol. iv., p. 417. 

 t Ent. Trans., New Ser., vol. v., p. 229. 



