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pursuit of that charming Papilio, which he had the good fortune to meet 

 with and secure ; but his specimens are not now extant. Our London 

 Lathonia is infinitely more rare than the Gamlingay one ; there have only 

 been seen five individuals of it, all in different and distant years, and all in 

 the month of September. Every one of these I have examined ; but the 

 Gamlingay Latonia never." 



Stephens, in his "Illustrations of British Entomology," 1828, writes, 

 " The effulgent metallic brilliancy of the silver spots which adorn the posterior 

 wings of this beautiful insect beneath, renders it pre-eminently conspicuous in 

 our collections ; and its peculiar rarity contributes to the value of its acquisi- 

 tion. Previously to the year 1818, few cabinets possessed even a single 

 specimen ; and from the very few known instances of its capture (six only 

 according to Mr. Haworth,) there is reason to believe that some of the speci- 

 mens at that time placed in collections were foreign ; but in the above re- 

 markable year for the appearance of certain papilionaceous insects, this species 

 occurred simultaneously in several, and very distant parts, having been taken 

 in August, by Mr. Haworth, at Halvergate, in Norfolk ; by Mr. Yigars, in 

 Battersea fields ; by myself at Dover, and during that and the following 

 month near Colchester ; Birch Wood, Kent ; and Hertford, in plenty by 

 others. At the latter place I saw several specimens, but was not fortunate 

 enough to secure any. In Petiver's time it was not very rare in Gamlingay 

 Wood, Cambridgeshire, in May; but all the recently recorded British ex- 

 amples have occurred towards the autumn, a fact which is apparently cor- 

 roborated by the captures of 1818. The first specimen (a female) I caught 

 on the 12th of August, sporting at the foot of Shakspeare's Cliff, was in a 

 very faded state, and had evidently been " winging its way " for many weeks ; 

 a pair which I took on the 14th, in the Castle meadow, Dover, were also in 

 a faded condition, whereas the specimens taken near Birch Wood, at the end 

 of September, were remarkably fine." 



Newman, in his "British Butterflies," 1871, writes: "This common Con- 

 tinental species has always been considered, and still remains, a great rarity 

 in this country ; the English localties are rather numerous, but the number 

 of specimens is very small ; the maritime position of most of the localties 

 suggests the idea of the specimens having migrated from the Continent : 

 Dover, Ramsgate, Folkestone, Yentnor, &c., seem to support this conclusion ; 

 while others, such, for instance, as the celebrated locality in Birch Wood, are 

 so truly inland that we cannot hesitate to believe that the specimens have 

 been bred on the spot where they were captured. I think we may conclude 

 that, like many of our resident birds, such as the goldfinch or skylark, of 

 which thousands of dozens are annually captured on their arrival 011 our 



