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the viper's-bugloss {Echiuin vulgare), still grows in many places ori 

 the downs. The other common Pyrale was Bofys flavalis, a species 

 of very different habits from the before-mentioned^ frequenting the 

 exposed downs, and formerly occurring pretty generally all over 

 them, but of late years appears to have totally disappeared from 

 those near the town, and it was quite by accident that I met with it 

 this year. 



The I St of August, being a fine day with but little wind, provided 

 an opportunity that I had long wished for of making a trip round 

 Beachy Head by rowing-boat. It is not an undertaking that I would 

 recommend to any one not pretty well used to boating, as the coast 

 is, to say the least of it, an awkward one, being fringed by rocks all 

 the way, and long spits of them run out into the sea for a mile 

 or so at intervals. At high tide these are well covered ; but, as we 

 were avowedly spending a lazy time, we had no ambition to make 

 the double journey against tide, and to avoid this one has to make a 

 start when it is approaching low water ; but even then, by a little 

 careful manipulation, one may manage to slip through gaps in the 

 reefs, and thus keep fairly close to the shore all the way. This we 

 did without any great difficulty, and the grandeur of the scene well 

 repaid us for any risk that we may have incurred. I had often gazed 

 down from the giddy height of the cliff to the sea beneath, I had 

 rounded the "Head" on steamers at a respectful distance from its 

 rock-bound coast, but never, until I found myself dancing on the 

 wavelets in a frail skiff at its foot, did I appreciate the majestic gran- 

 deur of that five hundred feet or so of sheer white cliff Continuing 

 our journey, we eventually reached Birling Gap, and having landed 

 and hauled our boat a safe distance up the beach, we made our way 

 up through the " Gap " on to the cliff, which, as the name of the 

 place implies, is here quite low, to wait the advent of the young flood 

 to help us on our way back to Eastbourne. 



It was then getting towards late afternoon, the sun shining obliquely 

 on the hiU-sides, when, as much to "kill time" as anything else, we 

 started to walk over the undulating downs in the direction of Cuck- 

 mere Haven. We had not gone many yards when I noticed a bright 

 little moth jump up from the low soft herbage, flit a little distance, 

 and settle down again ; then another and another. The place was 

 veritably alive with them. I had little doubt as to the species, yet 

 wished to make certain of it, but being avowedly on a boating ex- 

 pedition, the only collecting tackle I had with me was a nest of 

 four glass-topped boxes. I managed, however, by a little judicious 

 " stalking," to secure one of the moths in one of the boxes, and 

 there I beheld, sure enough, my old friend Botys flavalis. To fill 

 the remainder of the boxes was only a work of time, not on account 

 of the moths requiring looking for, but by reason of the difficulty 

 of persuading a Pyrale, when " on flight," to rest long enough to 

 admit of a pill-box being placed over it, especially when one comes 

 to the smaller sizes of the nest. Lithosia complana was also on the 



