PURPLE EMPEROR. 



strength, the sun." Let us next consider 

 another phase of imperial life presented to us 

 by Mr. Hewitson, afc page 315 of the first 

 Yolumeof the "Entomo'ogist" : " At the end 

 of a long and very rapid flight at the outskirts 

 of the wood they (the Emperors) would enter 

 its more shaded recesses, and settling wherever 

 moisture was to he met with, would protrude 

 into it their thin long trunks, aud were soon 

 heedless of my approach. I found a flat, bagless 

 net by far the best when their wings were 

 thus expanded, allowing them no room for 

 motion. Instead of employing their sunny 

 hours in sipping sweets, and 



' Gathering honey all the day 

 From every opening flower,' 



their delight was to extract the juices of each 

 swamp-hole, and the filthier tne puddle the 

 more it seemed adapted to their taste. Herds 

 of swine are brought to pasture on the borders 

 of the forest, and it was their droppings that 

 seemed to supply the Purple Emperors with 

 their choicest feast. Sea ting myself near one 

 of these, I selected the finest specimens as 

 they settled down, and watched them till they 

 closed their wings ; and so intent were they 

 on their occupation that they would usually 

 permit me to take them between my finger 

 and thumb. They were so numerous that I 

 have had no less than seven under a small net 

 at one time, and even then they showed but 

 little anxiety to get away." Again, Mr. 

 Sturgess writes thus, at page 59 of the second 

 volume of the " Intelligencer " : " You 

 may judge how agreeably surprised I was to 

 learn, one scorch iug day in July, that the 

 Purple Emperor had been caught regalinghim- 

 self upon the imperial delicacies of dead stoats, 

 weasels, &c., hanging upon some low bushes 

 as a terror to evil-doers. I need not say that 

 I did not neglect the first opportunity of 

 visiting the spot, and had the satisfaction of 

 seeing within the space of an hour three Em- 

 perors descend from their thrones to breakfast 

 upon the delicious viands." And again, Mr. 

 Russell, writing from Ashford, in Kent, in- 

 forms us, at page 139 of the same volume, 



" that on the 1 8th he captured two males o. 

 this insect in fine condition, one of them from 

 the head of a dead cat nailed to a lodge in the 

 wood." A few pages further on in the same 

 instructive journal (page 155) Mr. Sturgess 

 again reports progress thus : " Some of your 

 readers may be glad to learn the result of the 

 captures indicated above ; I believe the fol- 

 lowing is a correct list : On the llth of July 

 three specimens; on the 13th, six; on the 

 14th, seventeen; on the 15th, twenty; on 

 the 16th, eight; on the 17th, six; on the 

 18th, fourteen; on the 23rd, three; and 

 on the 24th, three ; making a total of 

 eighty specimens in nine days. The ex- 

 periment was not tried in the same place 

 as last year, but in a wood of some thirteen 

 hundred acres, where the Emperor appeared 

 to be more plentiful : the keeper kindly con- 

 sented to nail a portion of rabbit-skin and 

 the wing of a bird to the end of a house ; a 

 similar bait was also placed on a lime-heap 

 about a dozen yards distant." Here is suf 

 ficient evidence of the kind of delicacies best, 

 adapted to the imperial palate : an adaptation 

 which, however I may regret, I am unable to 

 dispute. I would gladly have depicted the 

 Emperor of our insect world as banqueting on 

 ambi-osi'i, an esculent of which, by the way, 

 I have no clearly defined idea, or quaffing the 

 nectar of flowers, but this would not be truth- 

 ful : in this and other cases of depraved 

 appetite, we can only lament a fact as incon- 

 trovertible as it is unsatisfactory, repeating 

 the somewhat trite, but ever sapient axiom, 

 de gustibus non est disputandum. I am able, 

 however, to assign his imperial majesty one 

 instance of more refined taste Dr. Knaggs 

 records, at page 165 of the fourth volume of 

 the " Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer," 

 that he succeeded in decoying an Emperor by 

 painting the trunk of a tree with stigar, and 

 thus secured him. 



LOCALITIES. This beautiful insect is un- 

 known in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of 

 Man, and its range in England is restricted to 

 the oak woods of the midland, eastern, and 

 southern counties. I give a list of the local) ties 

 it is known to visit : 



