48 



daughter came in from a walk, and after her usual question, " Caught 

 anything ? " and the casual answer, " Oh, a few," she said, " I have 

 seen such a lot of white butterflies, all flying in from the sea." This 

 naturally led to a good deal of cross-questioning, from which I elicited 

 that the species was without doubt P. rapce. It seems that directly 

 after I had started on my walk to the Head my daughter had gone out 

 on to the Wish Tower grounds, a mound overlooking the sea in front 

 of the town, and while sitting there, alternately reading a book and 

 gazing at the passing ships, she had seen this swarm of P, rapce 

 travelling inland from the sea. Here, then, was the key to what I had 

 witnessed, though unwittingly, — a vast immigration of this common 

 species. It is worthy of mention that for some few days after this 

 date P. rafite was unusually common about the town and vicinity, 

 but that after August ist it had dwindled down to quite ordinary 

 numbers. 



Satyrus semele is so generally regarded as a ground-resting species 

 that any variation of this habit is worthy of a passing note. In 

 some localities it appears to have a liking for resting on the trunks 

 of trees, but this applies chiefly to districts where it occurs on heaths 

 as distinct from the chalk downs, I believe. On the side of the 

 downs, about a mile back from the sea, is a large clump of timber, 

 commonly known as " Paradise," the upper edge of which is encircled 

 by a fence of some antiquity. A walk through the trees and round 

 this fence may be regarded as a very satisfactory "constitutional;" 

 and perhaps it was this that led me to frequently take this stroll in the 

 late afternoon or early evening. On one occasion a storm was brew- 

 ing, the western sky densely obscured by heavy clouds, on others the 

 sun shone full on the fence ; but whether the sky was cloudy or 

 bright, each time that I passed this fence I noticed individuals of 

 Satyrus semele fly on to it, close their wings, and settle down just as 

 they are wont to do on the ground. As a rule they were quite as 

 difficult to approach as when resting in their more usual positions, but 

 in two or three instances they had settled down so securely that I was 

 able to approach them and pick them off between my finger and 

 thumb. Pararge megcera, which was fairly common about the fence, 

 appeared to have a similar habit of resting on it. I also found 

 several specimens of Macroglossa stellatarum resting there from time 

 to time. It is hardly necessary that I should mention that this 

 species was abundant in the Eastbourne district. 



Bryophila muralis was, I think, more common than I have ever 

 known it before, and occurred pretty generally on walls up to fully 

 half a mile from the sea. It was out from the time I reached East- 

 bourne until I left ; indeed, I took a couple of fine specimens on my 

 way to the train to bring me back to London on the morning of 

 August 14th. As an instance of how soon the species will detect a 

 suitable breeding-place, I may mention that the gate-posts of one row 

 of houses on the Parade had escaped the usual spring cleaning for a 

 couple of years or so, and were therefore sustaining a fair growth of 



