218 SEPTEMBER 



was an unusual abundance of butterflies, and Miss 

 Ormerod reports officially that injurious insects show 

 no signs of diminution in that season. The second 

 or autumn hatches of butterflies was unusually great. 

 The pretty blues were never more numerous on 

 Hampshire downs than they were in 1895; whereas 

 in 1896, after a winter of extraordinary mildness, 

 they were remarkably scarce. In September of the 

 former year, the brimstone, a rare insect in autumn, 

 unique among British butterflies in the shape of its 

 posterior wings, was flitting about the osier-bed 

 above described, recalling the months of the spotted 

 orchis and primrose ; and peacocks and red admirals 

 pride of the shortening days came out unusually 

 early. In mid-August, too, appeared the forerun 

 ners of a welcome visitation of the clouded yellow 

 (Colias edusa) to Hampshire. This pretty fly, the 

 swiftest on the wing of all British butterflies, gener- 

 ally comes in troops when it comes at all, but it 

 is most capricious. It is more permanent in the 

 southern counties than farther north, where many 

 seasons pass without the occurrence of a single speci- 

 men; then suddenly, without apparent cause, as 

 last in 1892, the whole island, as far as Inverness, 

 is besprinkled with this bright and active butterfly. 



