34 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



corner of one particular field, year after year, while not a 

 single specimen could be found in all the neighbouring 

 fields, though precisely similar, to all appearance. This 

 phenomenon is quite inexplicable with regard to insects 

 endowed so pre-eminently with locomotive powers as 

 butterflies are. 



The local nature of his game should, however, induce 

 the collector to leave no nook or corner unexplored 

 when he is "working" a district; as the passing over 

 (or rather, neglecting to pass over) a single field may 

 lose him the very species it would joy him most to 

 find. 



I would also advise the beginner and, indeed, all 

 but the very experienced hands to catch, not necessa- 

 rily for slaughter, but for inspection, every attainable 

 individual whose species he cannot positively declare to 

 when on the wing, lest he pass by some rarities un- 

 awares. Thus the valued Queen of Spain, and the 

 much-disputed Dia Fritillaries, the Melitceas, the Brown 

 Hair-streak, and (on the mountains) the rare Erebias, 

 perhaps some new to this country, any of these might 

 be mistaken by a novice for some of the commoner brown 

 species. Among the " Whites," too, the Black- veined 

 White, that great prize, the Bath White, and the 

 white varieties of the Clouded Yellow and Clouded 

 Sulphur, might share the same fate, or fortune rather, 

 of being reckoned as " Cabbage Whites." 



Then, with the " Blues.' ' Who is there that could 

 at once distinguish with certainty the very rare Maza- 

 rine Blue (P. Acis) from the common Blues when on 

 the wing ? Perhaps it would turn out to be less rare 

 than supposed, if all the Blues in a fresh locality were 

 netted as they came near, and set at liberty after passing 

 muster. 



Why, only last season a very curious Blue, 1 never, 

 before observed in this country, was captured near 

 Brighton by a collector, who, at the moment, thought 



1 Polyommatus Booticus. 



