153 



to commence with those from the southerly districts, and for 

 this purpose, and for comparison with our British forms, I have 

 brought representatives from Asia Minor, Dalmatia, and 

 Saxony; these all belong to what I may call the clay-coloured 

 class, deepening in some specimens to a greyish-brown, and 

 in others to a somewhat reddish tint, but not showing any 

 very decided variation in this respect. I have not been able 

 to obtain examples from more northern Continental localities, 

 but by the courtesy of Dr. O. Staudinger I learn that nothing 

 is known of anything nearly so dark as var. curtisii (a form 

 to which I shall hereafter refer) but that rose-red, not brown- 

 red, specimens have been taken in Denmark. 



The prevailing form in the South English counties appears 

 to be of the clay-coloured type, varying in tint, and including 

 greyish-brown, and occasionally reddish examples. In the 

 midland counties and North Wales there is a tendency to run 

 into more decided and darker greys, and a dark central shade 

 that is ill-defined in some of the southern specimens, becomes 

 somewhat pronounced in some of these. The Isle of Man 

 type is even paler than the South English, some examples 

 being quite of a pale pinkish-gray shade. From the North 

 of Ireland we begin to find decided, though not dark, red 

 forms, but the dark greys are absent. 



At what particular latitude the dark red Qiirtisii forms 

 commence to appear I am unable to say, it does not appear 

 to be known in the Paisley district,^ and specimens that I 

 have seen from that neighbourhood more nearly resemble 

 those from the Isle of Man than any of the darker forms, 

 but it may be remembered that Curtis's typical specimen was 

 taken in the Isle of Bute, which is only some twenty-five 

 miles due west of Paisley. This is the most southerly 

 locality I have for it, the large numbers that have been 

 captured and bred of late years coming chiefly from Aber- 

 deenshire, Elgin, and the Hebrides, it has also been taken in 

 Orkney. It must not be supposed that only this form occurs 

 in these districts, on the contrary the range of variation is 

 exceedingly great, and includes some of the palest and 

 plainest, as well as the darkest shades known to the species, 

 some of these latter being almost black. 



But for all this each of the districts appear to have a 



tendency to a particular class of variation, thus the majority 



■ of the specimens from the Isle of Lewis (Hebrides), whether 



light or dark forms, have strongly produced markings, the 



^ Since writing the above I learn that some specimens closely resembling the 

 var. curtisii have been taken at " su^ar " at Paisley. 



