SCARCE SWALLOW-TAIL. 5 



Mr. B. Standish was also certain that he saw this butterfly on or 

 about September 20th., 1829, near Richmond Park. 



A friend of his, who was in his company when he saw this one, 

 saw another in 1820. 



Dr. Abbot told Haworth that he had seen 'Podalirius' two or three 

 times, previous to his capture of it, presently to be stated. 



Mr. Thomas Allis says as follows in "The Naturalist," old series, 

 vol. i., pages 38-9: — "Having noticed a good deal of dissension 

 respecting the genuineness of 'Papilio Podalirius' as a British insect, 

 I take this opportunity of announcing, through the medium of your 

 journal, that I myself possess a pair which I believe to be British. 

 I met with them under the following circumstances: — Happening to 

 be at Portsmouth the summer before last, for the first time, I enquired, 

 as is my usual practice on going to a town before unvisited by me, 

 for collectors of Natural History specimens : I soon found one, and 

 among the collection was a pair of the above-named species. The 

 owner assured me they were British, that they were caught by a 

 person she employed in the neighbourhood, and that she set them up 

 herself. As it would not have been worth her while to have imposed 

 on me in this instance, and especially as she did not seem aware of 

 the value of the specimens, I feel no doubt but that they were really 

 British. She could not at the time exactly inform me where they were 

 taken, but on my return to Portsmouth about a fortnight afterwards, 

 she told me she had learned, from the captor, that they were obtained 

 in the New Forest. From what I have said, I feel justified in con- 

 sidering myself the fortunate possessor of specimens of British Papilio 

 Podalirius." 



The above relate only to "ocular demonstration;" now then for those 

 "stubborn things" — "facts." First, I have myself seen, in the cabinet 

 of my friend, the Rev. George Rudston Read, Rector of Sutton-upon- 

 Derwent, near Pocklington, the original specimen which was captured 

 by his brother, William Henry Rudston Read, Esq., of Hayton and 

 York, when at school at Eton. He took it on the wing between 

 Slough and Datchet, Berkshire, before the month of July, about the 

 year 1826. It is a very dark individual. 



Again, the late Rev. F. W. Hope captured one in Shropshire in 

 1822, and saw another on the wing. 



Mr. Plymley found the larva near the spot where the Rev. F. W. 

 Hope took the perfect insect, but unfortunately the devouring Ichneu- 

 mon had made a lodgment, so that it came to nothing. Mr. Plymley 

 had the larva brought to him also more than once, and the perfect 

 insect in 1807, from the neighbourhood of Netley, Shropshire. 



