BUTTERFLIES. 265 



the wind was generally "W. or S.W., and the ther- 

 mometer occasionally as high as 54.* 



Vanessa antiopa.-\ This insect, as is well known, 

 is remarkable for the irregularity of its appearance 

 in this country. I have a manuscript note by a 

 naturalist, a relation of mine, now dead, in which it is 

 stated that in August, 1789, this species appeared in 

 the greatest profusion throughout Norfolk and Suf- 

 folk: great numbers are said to have been found 

 drowned on the coast, and it was the general belief 

 at the time that they had come over from the con- 

 tinent. 



Of late years, a few specimens of this beautiful 

 Papilio have been taken in this neighbourhood: 

 one shewn to me in the autumn of 1842 had been 

 captured a short time previous at Great Wil- 

 braham, within three or four miles of Swaffham 

 Bulbeck. 



Vanessa atalanta.% Admiral butterflies are much 

 attracted in the autumn by ripe fruit, and especially 

 by mulberries. One of these trees, which formerly 

 grew near here, was generally visited daily, in the 

 month of September, towards noon, when the sun 



* I find a notice in The Zoologist (p. 64), of the peacock but- 

 terfly being seen on wing at Lavenham in Suffolk, Dec. 13, 1842: 

 also (p. 113), of the little tortoise-shell flying about briskly at 

 Dover, Dec. 15, in the same year. 



t Steph. Illust. (Haust.) p. 45 



I Id. p. 46. 



I find the fact of admiral butterflies feeding upon the juices 

 of the autumnal fruits mentioned by Mr. Knapp, in his Journal 

 of a Naturalist (3rd edit.), p. 289. 



N 



