CATALOGUE OF BtTTTEEFLLES. 21 



in its snug domicile on almost every bank of IS'ettles. Then, 

 somewhere in the sixties, when so many other Butterflies left 

 us, it almost disappeared from both counties, and for several 

 years I have no record of its capture — except of chance speci- 

 mens, l^ow, after more than twenty years absence, it has again 

 become a more familiar object. In 1893 it was fairly abundant. 

 This year (1895) it is quite common about Hartlepool, and I 

 have even seen it feasting on a Sunflower in a garden in the 

 town, with a crowd of hungry-eyed boys around the railings 

 awaiting an opportunity of capturing it, but it soared up over 

 the tops of the houses and escaped. Though recent records are 

 not numerous, the Butterfly appears to have been noticed in 

 districts sufficiently far apart to warrant the statement that it is 

 still " widely distributed." Mr. Howse tells me that it is rare 

 in the Eedewater district. I have seen it at Egglestone in Tees- 

 dale, but I have no record of it from the wilder moorland, where 

 indeed its food-plant does not occur so frequently as in more 

 cultivated parts. Mr. Finlay records it from the Morpeth dis- 

 trict, Mr. Henderson took it in Jesmond Cemetery, Mr. Brady 

 at Sunderland, Mr. Sibson at Stockton-on-Tees, and Mr. "Was- 

 serman gives it in his list of Coast Lepidoptera in the Transac- 

 tions for 1877 (vol. 5, p. 284). Atalanta has the curious habit 

 (for a Butterfly) of being on the wing late at night. It is some- 

 times seen on a gas-lamp. I have twice taken it at light and 

 once at sugar. The larva conceals itself by drawing together 

 the edges of a Nettle leaf, and never appears to feed in company, 

 or openly, as do others of the genus. 



19. Vanessa Cardui (L.). Painted Lady. 



Cynthia Cardui. Staint. Man., vol. 1, p. 37. 



Pyrameis ,, Newm. Brit. Butt., p. 64. 



Vanessa ,, Barrett's Lep. Brit. Is., vol. 1, p. 149. 



,, ,, Meyrick, Hdbk. Brit. Lep., p. 334. 



Larva. Buck., vol. 1, pi. viii., fig. 1 ; 0. Wils., pl.iii., fig.9. 



The *' Painted Lady" is, of all our Butterflies, the most migra- 

 tory in its habits, — so much so, that the range of the species 



