98 THE entomologist's record. 



Collecting in the Chilterns. 



By H. ROWLAND BROWN, M.A., F.E.S. 



A favourite expedition of mine at all times of the year is from Tring 

 or Wendover by the upper road to Kimble, then straight to within two 

 miles of Prince's Risboro', and sharp to the left across the Chilterns 

 by the road which eventually leads to Gt. Missenden. On a bicycle 

 the journey is easy enough. Walkers coming from London should 

 take the Metropolitan to Wendover, and follow the route indicated, and 

 I can promise them a rare treat from every point of view, including the 

 entomological. For some reason or other the insect fauna of Bucking- 

 hamshire does not seem to have received its fair share of attention of 

 late years ; a fact due perhaps to the difficulties of railway access, and 

 the large number of enclosed estates throughout the county. I do not 

 know of any modern complete list of the lepidoptera to be found 

 within the area, although there are many notices in Newman's British 

 Jhittrrjliks, supplied by the Revs. Joseph Greene and Harpur Crewe, of 

 a remoter date. So little, however, has the character of the county 

 changed, and so comparatively indulgent has been the builder, that I 

 should not be surprised that, of the 46 butterflies catalogued when 

 the first edition of British JUitterfiicf; was published, the majority 

 remain in their old haunts, save, of course, such things as Lyccuma 

 arion. The leafy coppices of the great sporting estates look the 

 very places for the dainty L. dhylla, and vmless A. iria is collected 

 to death, it is hardly one of those insects which die out in an unac- 

 countable manner like Aporia cratacf/i or Tliaia jirioii. 



Halton, Drayton -Beauchamp, and Aston -Clinton — the double- 

 barrelled name is of frequent occurrence throughout the county — lie 

 between Tring and Wendover, and in the magazines there are scattered 

 notices of a few other Buckinghamshire localities. Unfortunately I 

 have never been able to go over the ground after the first week in July 

 until September, so that there is necessarily a lapse in my observa- 

 tions during the most important season of the entomological year, 

 but from what I have seen I have every confidence that the missing 

 links may still be supplied. Bicycle trips with head-quarters some 30 

 miles away are not altogether satisfactory, as it is impossible to do 

 more than give attention to the day fliers. The inn at Little Kimble, 

 however, aftbrds excellent quarters, and I was interested to find a French 

 gentleman and his family unexpectedly established there last June 

 when I passed through, so that it is clear that the beauty of the county 

 and the charm of the chalk downs have achieved something greater 

 than a local reputation. There a bug-hunter might stay a week and 

 comfortably work the ground to the profit of his health, the enlarge- 

 ment of his series, and the pleasant certainty of adding a delight- 

 ful page or two to that picture-book of memories which is no less 

 valuable to the lover of Nature than specimens obtained and series 

 completed. Chalk downs have an irresistible fascination, whether by 

 the sea, or stretching inland as they do here from the Thames Valley 

 to Cambridgeshire. With a peculiar flora follows an interesting fauna, 

 and when the hills are well wooded into the bargain, the chance of 

 things new to the collector as well as to the county lists is enhanced. 

 But whether the wheel or the slower locomotion of nature carries us 

 over the ground, in winter or spring, in summer or autumn, there is 



