﻿TWO DAYS' COLLECTING IN NORMANDY. 223 



shades of a dubious brownish greyish hue, that can be called 

 nothing in particular. These I have, at least for the present, 

 left alone, feeling fairly certain (a view quite confirmed by the 

 experiments on bucephala, O.macilenta, A.psi, &c.) that no results 

 — at least of a very definite character — would be forthcoming. 



The number of heads under which I have grouped the colours 

 may seem very few ; but there are only a few distinct colours, 

 and under yellow or red, e.g., are included many different shades 

 and hues. I have endeavoured, in these preliminary trials, to 

 examine types of each chief colour in each of the large groups,* 

 so far as possible, and intend now to extend my investigations to 

 foreign representatives of — more especially — Rhopalocera and 

 Bombycidse (and Sphingidae), since in these divisions there chiefly 

 occur the brilliant colours : some interesting results may be expected 

 perhaps among some of the Geometrse, but I have small hopes of 

 the Noctuae, among which bright colours are scarce, and indefinite 

 half-shades the rule.f Some further reference will be made to 

 this below ; and it now remains to discuss the significance of the 

 foregoing results, and offer such interpretation of them as we 

 can. I propose to consider them under ttvo heads: first, taking 

 their chemical aspect; and secondly, their biological or phylo- 

 genetic, — in which connexion I shall explain what seems to me 

 their bearing on Variation. 



(To be continued.) 



TWO DAYS' COLLECTING IN NORMANDY. 



By John Henry Leech, B.A., F.L.S., &o. 



I have been frequently asked by British entomologists if I 

 knew of a good collecting-place on the Continent within easy 

 reach, affording a pleasant change for a short lioliday, and the 

 prospect of yielding a good return in the way of rare British 

 insects, in addition to a few that have not as yet been recorded 

 from England. The task of combining a short journey, a good 

 collecting locality, and a modest expenditure, was by no means 

 an easy one. As a boy I was fairly well acquainted with some 

 parts of the coast of Normandy, especially the neighbourhood of 

 Havre, and having very pleasant reminiscences of Tancarville 

 (about 25 miles from Havre) I determined to give it a trial this 

 season. Accompanied by Mr. South and Mr. H. McArthur, I 

 left London at 9.45 on Friday night last (June J 3th), and arrived at 

 Tancarville by mid-day on Saturday. At first sight the locality bids 



* I.e., of course, as represented in England. 



t A few experiments have already been made on Coleoptera, Neuroptera, and 

 Diptera. 



