INTEODUCTION. VU 



Several other printed lists have also been issued relating to 

 the local fauna, and have been drawn upon wherever desirable. 

 These are fully referred to already in the introduction to Mr. 

 "W^ailes' paper, and need only be mentioned here very briefly. 



The earliest is in the *' Natural History and Antiquities of 

 Northumberland and North Durham," by the Eev. John "Wallis, 

 published in 1769. This list is remarkable for the inclusion of 

 the Large Tortoise-shell Butterfly as a common resident species. 

 I have spoken of this in its place in the catalogue, and I must 

 confess, that but for the inclusion also of the only two other 

 species that could be confounded with this, I would have con- 

 cluded the reverend author was mistaken. It may now be 

 remarked that Vanessa polychloros, after disappearing from 

 many of its more southern haunts, and becoming so rare 

 generally as to raise doubts whether it was not going to leave 

 the country altogether, has again become common, and re- 

 inhabited many of its old stations. It would be very interest- 

 ing indeed should it again extend its range to the vale of the 

 Tyne, and the ''Alpine woods and shady pastures in Northum- 

 berland," it appears to have frequented a century and a half 

 ago. 



Next in date, and first in importance, is a list of the Lepi- 

 doptera occurring at Twizell in North Northumberland. This 

 was written by the late P. J. Selby, and was published in the 

 *' Annals and Magazine of Natural History " in the year 1839. 

 It is a mere list of names, and gives no information as to the 

 abundance or rarity of the species enumerated, nor any notes of 

 habits. It is nevertheless a valuable list, and though there are 

 certainly a few errors, it is the most useful of the early lists, 

 and has been of great assistance to me, as my information 

 respecting Northumberland generally, except about Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne and Morpeth, is much too scanty. The Twizell 

 collection, illustrating this list, most unfortunately went to 

 Cambridge University instead of to the Museum at Newcastle, 

 where it would have been preserved intact. At Cambridge it 

 had no local value, many insects were taken out to place else- 

 where, and others, not taken at Twizell, were inserted. Mr. 



