NOTES AND QUERIES. 169 



members, Sir Selwyn Ibbetson and Lord Eustace Cecil, Sir John Lubbock, 

 and others, took care to have the true facts of the case laid before Parliament 

 before the day came for the second reading of the Bill. Indeed it may be 

 said with truth that the rejection of the Bill, which was eventually thrown 

 out by a majority of 230 members against 82, was in a great measure due 

 to the energetic steps taken with that view by the indefatigable Secretary 

 of that Society Mr. William Cole, by the President Professor Boulger, and 

 by the ex-President Mr. Raphael Meldola. To these gentlemen, especially, 

 are the thanks of naturalists due for having come forward in the way they 

 did to uphold the preservation of the Forest according to the letter and 

 spirit of the Act by which it was declared to be the property of the public, 

 and to prevent the abstraction of any part of it for private purposes. 

 Epping Forest is one of the very few remnants of primaeval woodland now 

 existing in England, and has for nearly a century been the resort of that 

 class of Londoners who take the purest delight in a ramble in free air in 

 search of natural objects and phenomena. It is a significant fact that the 

 petitions presented by the Essex Naturalists' Field Club bore signatures 

 representing nearly 4000 amateur naturalists of London, who consider 

 the railway accommodation now available to be more than sufficient for 

 their requirements, and resent the threatened invasion and destruction of 

 their recreation ground, as well as any further curtailment of its area. 

 Now that the House of Commons has so emphatically pronounced against 

 the Bill in question it is to be hoped that we shall hear no more of any 

 such barefaced attempts at annexation and spoliation. 



Notes from the Solomon Islands.— We reached Ugi, one of the 

 easternmost islands of the Solomon group, on the 9th November, and left 

 again on the 12th, visiting Florida and Guadalcauar on our way to the 

 Duke of York Island. The Solomon Islands are of course a good deal 

 more tropical in their appearance than the New Hebrides. It appears to 

 be constantly raining, so that all the under vegetation is very dense, and 

 everything reeks with vapour. We were fortunate while we were at Ugi, 

 as it only rained the afternoon of the day we left. I went on shore every 

 day we were there, but on the whole was disappointed with what I got. 

 Butterflies were very scarce, and a large proportion of those I obtained 

 were more or less worn. I got about 140 good specimens, most of them 

 being new to me. Of course I saw a great many I was unable to catch. 

 Many of them flew among the highest branches of the loftiest forest trees, 

 so that it would take some time to get at these species. There were 

 five or six fine Papilios about, and one I captured about 5J in. across 

 the wings. As there were no roads of any kind, my hunting was confined 

 to narrow native paths, where it was difficult to catch butterflies as they 

 crossed; and if missed they went away at once into the forest, where 



