104 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



hind wings, and tne presence of a bluish grey circumflex 

 line at the inner angle ; here also is sometimes a small 

 orange dot : beneath, the orange band forms a series of 

 arches, hounded on the edge nearest the root of the 

 wing by a clear black line instead of the rounded black 

 spots seen at this part in Pruni. 



The caterpillar, which feeds on the elm, is wood- 

 louse shaped ; pea-green, barred with yellow ; head 

 black. May be beaten off elm trees in May. 



The butterfly appears in July, and is found in various 

 situations, sometimes flying high up round elm trees, 

 sometimes descending to bramble hedges, or fluttering 

 about in weedy fields a foot or two from the ground. 1 It 

 was formerly a much rarer insect than at present, and 

 now its appearance in any given locality is a matter of 

 much uncertainty. Mr. J. F. Stephens writes as follows 

 to the Zoologist : 



" For eighteen years I possessed four bleached speci- 

 mens only of Thecla W. Album, having vainly endea- 

 voured to procure others, when, in 1827, as elsewhere 

 recorded, I saw the insect at Eipley, not by dozens only, 

 but by scores of thousands ! and although I frequented 

 the same locality for thirteen years subsequently, some- 

 times in the season for a month together, I have not 

 since seen a single specimen there ; but in 1833 I 

 caught one specimen at Madingley Wood, near Cam- 

 bridge." 



Other localities : Near Sheffield ; Eoche Abbey ; 

 York ; Peterborough ; near Doncaster ; Polebrook, 

 Uorthants ; Allesley, Warwickshire ; Brington, Hunt- 

 ingdonshire ; Yaxley and Monks Wood, Cambridge- 

 shire ; Needwood Forest, Staffordshire ; Wolverston, 

 near Ipswich ; Chatham ; Southgate, Middlesex ; West 

 Wickham Wood ; Epping ; Bristol. 



THE PUEPLE HAIE-STEEAK. 

 (Thecla Quercus.) (Plate XII. fig. 4, Male ; 4 a, Female.) 



AT once the commonest and the handsomest of the 

 Hair-streaks, being found in almost every part of Eng- 



