Natural History. 1 1 7 



At present the very local butterfly Hesperia paniscus (the 

 Chequered Skipper) appears to be confined to the Middle 

 Oolite district, its range extending from Bourn on the south to 

 the woods around Wickenby and Market Rasen and, perhaps, 

 further north. Most probably this is accidental, but I have no 

 record of its occurence outside this narrow strip. The 

 mention of the butterfly raises memories of many pleasant 

 afternoons, when I have seen it flying up and down with its 

 peculiarly glancing rapid flight in the glades of Newball Wood, 

 near Wragby. I remember that when I first came to Lincoln 

 I was introduced to its locality by Mr. Barber, of Lincoln (an 

 excellent taxidermist and keen naturalist, who died quite 

 young), and that there seemed to be a considerable probability 

 of the butterfly being exterminated by dealers from Hull, who 

 with the retail price fixed at 8d. or gd., were able to make a 

 very fair profit out of a good day's collecting. We were, 

 therefore, very pleased when Mr. Wordsworth, the courteous 

 agent of Earl Manvers, closed the woods entirely to all except 

 a limited number of legitimate naturalists, to whom cards of 

 admission are issued each year on application ; it is a great 

 pity that the privilege cannot be extended in many other 

 cases, but, as a rule, where woods and parks are entirely closed, 

 we shall find that too often the closure has been caused by 

 abuse of privilege ; either plants have been ruthlessly destroyed, 

 or fences damaged, or gates left open, or game disturbed. A 

 gamekeeper in Sherwood Forest once told me that a man had 

 been going about with a butterfly-net and taking pheasant 

 eggs all the time ; what wonder then if the innocent suffer 

 with the guilty. Were we the owners of property we should 

 act in the same way in the face of wanton provocation. Even 

 genuine collectors and observers are too often utterly careless. 

 One of the best localities for beetles in the whole of the 

 Midlands is entirely shut up now because someone who ought 

 to have known better threw away a match after lighting his 

 pipe and fired the whole place. This, of course, is a digression, 

 and in any case it is well that there are a large number of 

 localities which are practically inaccessible. If all the habitats 

 of our birds, insects, and flowers were open to everyone, the 

 rarer species would soon become extinct, for nothing apparently 

 can exceed the greed of the collector for gain, a person who 

 brings especial discredit upon the study of the lepidoptera, 

 which are perhaps the most marketable of all natural history 

 commodities. Of course, certain insects have become or are 



