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Lazy Days by the Sea (chiefly concerning Lepidoptera). 



By Robert Adkin, F.E.S. Read October 27th, 1898. 



Whether it is the sudden release from the everyday cares of 

 business routine that engenders a desire for absolute indolence, or 

 the familiarity of one's surroundings on going frequently to the same 

 place for one's annual holiday that inspires a feeling that there is not 

 much to be gained by unduly exerting one's self, I know not ; but I 

 am fully conscious that on the occasion of my visit to Eastbourne 

 in July and August last I felt no keen inclination to take any great 

 amount of physical exertion, but rather to amuse myself by noting 

 such facts and queries as came in my way whilst strolling about the 

 vicinity of the town, inhaling the delightfully fresh sea breezes, or 

 basking in the glorious sunshine which prevailed during the greater 

 part of the fortnight or so that I was there. 



One thing that particularly struck my attention was the comparative 

 scarcity of butterflies met with on my daily rambles. Of course 

 there are exposed parts of the Downs where one does not ever 

 expect to find any great number; but there are also many sheltered 

 nooks, such as the undercliff between Holywell and Beachy Head, 

 where they are often, I may say usually, to be found in great pro- 

 fusion. Time after time I traversed this particular bit of ground, 

 both during sunshine and when the shadows fell in the late after- 

 noon, but always with the same result. At first I thought that the 

 season being a late one, I must be too early for them, but this could 

 not apply to the later days that I was there. The fact was brought 

 more particularly to my notice by the circumstance that our fellow- 

 member Mr. Lachlan Gibb of Montreal, who was staying in this 

 country, was spending a couple of days with me, and expressed a 

 wish to renew his acquaintance with the " Blues," such as we had 

 collected over this same district many years ago. Leaving home in 

 the early afternoon we made our way to Beachy Head (on the 

 summit of which, by-the-bye, we saw the only specimen of Vanessa 

 cardui that came under my notice while I was at Eastbourne), and 

 descending by the path to the edge of the cliff, we reached the 

 undercliff just as the sun was getting behind the hills and the 

 "Blues" settling down to rest, just the most favourable time for 

 taking them ; but although we searched diligently, and found both 

 Lyccena corydon and L. icarus, we hardly completed a score between 

 them, although I had often in other years found them by hundreds. 

 Pieris brassicce and P. rapce were, of course, to be seen wherever one 

 went, the former predominating, and becoming, I hear, somewhat 

 abundant in the neighbourhood after I had returned to town. 



