A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



water, its bogs, woods and common land it has always been an attractive 

 spot for the naturalist, and being within easy reach of Birmingham has 

 been well worked and will be found frequently quoted in the lists 

 which follow. There are fine parks full of large trees, etc., at Stone- 

 leigh, Warwick, Packington, etc., and the woods are scattered all over 

 the county, most of the localities quoted in the lists Knowle, Wolford, 

 Brandon, Atherstone, etc. being in the neighbourhood of some of the 

 larger ones, though none are very large. The presence of Birmingham 

 with its smoke and dirt and crowds of inhabitants pouring forth into 

 the country on every holiday has doubtless had its effects on the flora 

 and fauna of the north-western parts ; on the one hand helping to re- 

 duce the number of species and on the other possibly modifying them, 

 as the presence of dark forms of some species such as Miana strigilis, Cl., 

 Hybernia marginaria, Bkh., Gradlaria syringe/fa, F., etc., seems to prove. 

 Possibly this may be the explanation of the occurrence of some species 

 in the south which do not occur in the north of the county. 



In the south-west is a portion of the county which is separated 

 from the remainder by a narrow strip of Worcestershire. In this 'island' 

 is situated Whitchurch, which is often quoted in the lists, and a portion 

 of the parish is, I believe, in each county, so that the records from there 

 are a little mixed. In some cases I have mentioned when specimens 

 were taken in the Worcestershire strip ; geographically however, though 

 not politically, this strip of Worcestershire might well be included in 

 Warwickshire, and there could be no harm in including its fauna in 

 that of our county. In and around Birmingham too the border lines 

 are rather irregular, and I have thought it neither necessary nor desir- 

 able to be too strict about including captures from doubtful spots. For 

 instance, a long tongue of Worcestershire runs into Warwickshire just 

 south of Birmingham. Situated in this strip are Yardley, Acocks Green, 

 Moseley, etc., all of which will be found quoted in the lists; but as 

 a walk of a quarter of a mile or little more would take one from either 

 of these places into Warwickshire, and as moreover Warwickshire almost 

 surrounds them, specimens recorded are as likely to have been taken 

 in one county as in the other and are little likely to be restricted to one 

 of them only. 



There is not much to be written historically about the progress 

 of entomology in Warwickshire. Few entomologists even of slight dis- 

 tinction have ever worked or lived in the county, and but little has ever 

 been published on its insects. It was in this county that Weaver col- 

 lected and was said to have taken Argynnis dia, L., and other wonderful 

 species in the early half of last century ; and there must have been 

 other collectors in those early days as there are traditions of their 

 captures of Lycoena semiargus, Rott., near Birmingham, etc., but I have 

 been unable to learn anything about them or their work. It is not 

 until we reach the 'sixties,' when Dr. R. C. R. Jordan, Messrs. W. G. 

 Blatch and F. Enock began to collect, that anything definite is known, 

 and not much then. Dr. Jordan was well known as a student of the 



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