47 



Mr. William Hudson, on the institution of the British Museum, in 1756, 

 was made one of the assistant librarians. He resigned this office, however, 

 in 1758, in order to pursue his profession as an apothecary. In 1762, he 

 published his well-known work " Flora Angiica," in which the indigenous 

 plants of England were arranged according to the Linnaean system, and he 

 was soon after made a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1778, was published a 

 second and improved edition. 



The Messrs. Skrimshire first saw the Coppers as they going to Ely in a gig 

 in 1797 or 1798, but took little notice. On returning they saw one settle 

 on the road, and they knew it was not a common one. 



The next specimens were taken at Whittlesea Mere, by Thomas Speechley, 

 an old boatman in my father's employ, in July, 1819, and subsequently by 

 my father himself and the Messrs. Standish. It appears to have occurred in 

 great plenty, as several hundreds were taken within the next ten years by the 

 London collectors, who visited Whittlesea and Yaxley Meres, during the 

 month of July, for the sole purpose of obtaining specimens. In 1827, Mr. 

 Haworth took fifty specimens in a single day in Bardolph Fen, Norfolk ; a 

 few also were taken at Benacre, in Suffolk. 



In London's "Natural History" for 1834, is the following fact com- 

 municated to the Rev. W. T. Bree, by Mr. Haworth. "Some entomologists 

 once made an excursion into the fens, for the purpose of taking the beautiful 

 Lycana dispar or Large Copper butterfly, which it is well known frequents 

 low marshy grounds. The Coppers were captured in great abundance. It so 

 happened that the following winter proved to be a very wet one, and the 

 entire tract of land where the Coppers had been found was completely in- 

 undated, and actually lay under water for a considerable time. The entomo- 

 logists deemed that the flood would certainly destroy the Coppers, and that 

 the race would become extinct in that part of the country. The next summer, 

 however, the butterflies were found again on the very same spot, as plenti- 

 fully as before. Subsequently the tract of land was submitted to the action 

 of fire, and the whole surface burnt with a view to agricultural improvement. 

 After this operation, the Coppers were no longer met with in that particular 

 locality." The latest capture, consisting of five specimens, appears to have 

 been made at Holme Fen, by Mr. Stretton either in 1847 or 1848. 



In 1851, Whittlesea Mere was drained, and what was once the home of 

 many a rare bird and insect, became first a dry surface of hardened mud, 

 cracked by the sun's heat into multitudinous fissures, and now scarce yields 

 to any land in England, in the weight of its golden harvest. 



In the " Introduction to Entomology " by Kirby and Spence, published in 

 1826, is the following passage, " Morasses also have their peculiar insects. 



