c)»b THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and object there was to discover Chrysophanus dispar var. rutilus 

 in one of the very few regions of France where it is known to 

 survive, and, as subsequent events came about, I was to be by 

 no means unsuccessful in my quest. I may say at once, how- 

 ever, that without the kind assistance, wiUingly given, of a 

 French lepidopterist — the veteran M. Kobert Brown, of Cau- 

 deran (who some years ago had given me invaluable information 

 about the butterflies of the south-west) — I could by no possi- 

 bility have found my way to the particular terrain still conse- 

 crated to the loveliest and rarest of western " Coppers." 



The localities in the near neighbourhood of Bordeaux, speci- 

 fied for rutilus {— hippothoe, L.) by M. Charles Oberthiir in his 

 quite recent ' Lepidopterologie Comparee ' (fasc. iv. pp. 137-155, 

 &c.), have already disappeared. The "marshes" of Baccalou 

 are now part and parcel of the city open spaces — drained dry, 

 and overrun with humanity ; and it is necessary, therefore, to 

 go further afield to find rutilus at home. Half an hour's journey 

 by tram to Cauderan on August 1st — a cloudless, brilliant 

 morning— brought me to M. Brown's house, where I found my 

 friend awaiting me, and prepared to take the field at once, he 

 having already explored certain old-time haunts of the species 

 only to draw these " coverts " blank. Once more we took to 

 wheels : this time the tram which leads to Le Vigean and 

 Blanquefort — outlying villages — and passes rapidly from sub- 

 urban villadom into the network of market-gardens which in this 

 direction have invaded the former marshland. We alighted at 

 an opening between two such highly cultivated pieces of land 

 in the neighbourhood of Bruges — a name so suggestive of the 

 Low Countries that I at once asked my companion the meaning 

 of this Flemish-sounding appellation in the midst of a Depart- 

 ment which deals chiefly in "acs" and "ocs" — Pessac, Medoc, 

 and the like. His reply was instructive, not only etymologi- 

 cally, but entomologically. Some two hundred years ago the 

 " Grand Monarque," recognizing the possibilities of the soil, 

 composed of detritus brought down by the great rivers from the 

 Pyrenees, colonized the then existing "landes" with Nether- 

 landers as being the most experienced and expert reclaimers — 

 then as now — of such localities. The experiment succeeded. 

 The " landes " were reclaimed, and the process of absorbing the 

 marshes into cultivation still goes on, to the inevitable destruc- 

 tion of all indigenous beasts, birds, and insects — not least of 

 these, Chrysophanus rutilus ! The same forces, then, which de- 

 stroyed the " Large Copper " in the Cambridge and Huntingdon 

 fens are in full swing here, and the final extermination of this 

 butterfly over most of the Bordeaux country is but a question 

 of near time. 



Pursuing our way down a sandy cart-track, hemmed in 

 between prosperous-looking fruit-farms — a track lined until re- 



