THE LEPIDOPTERA OF MUCKING. 93 



trout, and, as the vanguard of the army phniged into the water, they 

 were pounced upon by the hungry fish, but when the tens of thousands 

 followed, so as to almost dam the current, the gorged trout sought the 

 deepest pools, feeling, no doubt, like the Hebrews after their feast of 

 quails." 



The Lepidoptera of Mucking. 



By liKv C. 1!. N. JJUPiKOWS. 



Mucking. — Ah ! No, do not blush fair reader, this is not a naughty 

 word, it is the name of a place — of my present home. From Hainham, 

 of pleasant name but sad odour, I have migrated to Mucking, a queer 

 name indeed — but a place which ought to have the purest tiir to be 

 breathed in England. For Mucking lies on the Essex side of the 

 Thames at the very first bend of the river, and our outlook is down the 

 mouth of Father Thames, and out into the open sea. Such is fate, 

 perhaps retribution, for having abused Rainham — to have to write 

 Mucking at the head of every letter, and whisper my new address to 

 anxious enquirers. I must confess that at first I resolved to change it 

 to Claremont, but when I found there was an attempt on hand to make 

 it Linford (irctc Lymford, from Limus = shme, mud), 1 reconciled my- 

 self to the old name, which means simply "much grass," or " extensive 

 pasture" in the Anglo-Saxon. 



To describe the place is not easy. It is marsh and low hill, just 

 not under water, nor quite above, and when there is a high tide — not 

 to say a flood — extensive tracts of the marsh-land disappear until the 

 water can run away. This is as it should be, from a resident ento- 

 mologist's point of view, as it makes tlie danger of insect poachers on 

 one's preserves, so much less. Fancy a reader of this paper hurrying 

 to catch the last train, and finding something under a quarter of a 

 mile of running water over the path he came — and the memory of the 

 deep muddy ditches on either side now hidden from his sight. I am 

 not of a grudging disposition, so will only remark that I know a short 

 cut to the station which is never flooded at all. I have said that 

 Mucking is neither entirely marsh nor hill. Neither is it all grass, nor all 

 trees. But it is an agreeable mixture of the two ; just what a country 

 place should be, for one who likes woodland species, but loves the 

 "wainscotes;" and after living six years quite in the marshes at Hainham, 

 one must acknowledge some satisfaction at once again finding at least 

 some of the woodland insects one has missed so long. 



Of course the first season in a new locality is never very productive. 

 It partakes more of the nature of tasting tea — or sampling the wine 

 vaults. One " wants to know," and one generally, I find, misses a good 

 many of the best insects in finding connnon species. One does not 

 know where to begin ; so I find my entomological diary for LS9S, a 

 very unsatisfactory one indeed. My first entries read : March 24th — 

 "Thunder, hail, gale." March 25th — "Snow and north wind," which do 

 not promise well. Then comes March 31st — '^ Anisojitcn/.r acscnlai ia in 

 the duck pond." April 8rd — " 'racniocanijia miinda, m the school." April 

 8th — " Xi/loraiiijia lithoiirM, in the garden," and these entries show that 

 so far, I had done or attempted no collecting, whilst " larvie of Airtia 

 rillica " — and " Ci/anin's on/idliis flying in the garden," seem to close 

 my first feeble efibrts to begin, and I do not seem to have commenced 



