London Insects. 139 



half-a-dozen ragged little shouting urchins from the 

 slums of Westminster tumbling over one another 

 in St. James's Park in wild pursuit of a White 

 Butterfly, probably very well able to take care of 

 itself till it meets a White Throat or Cock Sparrow. 



It is rather interesting to notice that such Butter- 

 flies as there are in London keep to the tops of the 

 trees, more than one often sees them do in quieter 

 country places. 



We have a great many Moths of different kinds in 

 London. Judging by the numbers which will hurt 

 one's feelings by flying into the candle as one sits by 

 an open window on a warm night, or finding their 

 way between the globe and chimney of the lamp, 

 where it is impossible to leave them to scorch, as well 

 as by the varieties to be occasionally met with in the 

 parks and streets in the daytime, and by the much 

 too apparent marks of Caterpillars' work everywhere, 

 it ought to be possible to make a large collection.* 

 But, as nearly all are night-fliers, there is not much 

 chance of doing this in the daytime only, and the 

 powers that be are wisely stern in their refusal to 

 create the precedent which the official abhors as 

 Nature does a vacuum, by lending a key of Ken- 

 sington Gardens or granting leave to outstay the 

 closing hour ; and so the privilege of " treacleing " 

 trees in the only really satisfactory hunting fields in 

 town is confined to palace footmen, policemen, and, 

 perhaps, the First Commissioner of Public Works. 



* Among the insects caught actually in London by the 

 winner of a piize for Natural History given at a public school 

 were the Leopard, Goat, Ermine, Bufftip, Peppered, " Willow 

 Beauty," and " Brindled Beauty " Moths, and the Small 

 Tortoiseshell, Peacock, and three sorts of white Butterflies. 

 The rare Alder Moth was caught within an easy walk of Hyde 

 Park Corner, on Wimbledon Common. 



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