CUPIDO MINIMUS. 141 



blossoms of Armeria, and Sparre- Schneider notes finding two ?son 

 Aquilegia near Bergen. 



Habitats. — One lovely morning in the first week of June, 1873, after 

 walking for some distance through the woods behind Cuxton Church, a 

 dive to the left down one of the narrow woodland paths, brought us out 

 upon the high chalk downs above the village of Hailing, and overlooking 

 the Medway. Here, in one of those little inlets that lead into the wood, 

 the grass grew tall among the bushes, whilst the ground was carpeted 

 with Anthyllis just coming into bloom, and on the grass and bushes, 

 busily flitting in the hot sun, or resting on a bare patch of chalk, w T ere 

 hundreds of freshly-emerged Cupido minimus ; but, in the British 

 Islands, this widely distributed species affects a great variety of habitats. 

 In the southern and south-eastern counties, although by no means 

 confined thereto, it frequents particularly the chalk-hills, whilst, in 

 the western counties, as well as the midlands, and in the north, it 

 equally affects the limestone hills and mountains ; on the coasts of 

 Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere, it is equally abundant on the sand- 

 hills, and, indeed, in a variety of other chosen habitats, e.g., the sandy 

 flats of Glen Lochay, the sandy coasts of Galway, the limestone rocks 

 of Clare, and the coast rocks and slopes of Kincardine. Abroad, it 

 has a most amazing range of habitats from the grassy glades of hot 

 Provence, and the gullies of Andalusia, to the summit of the Simplon, 

 Gemmi, and Albula passes, the high pastures above Zermatt, Arolla, 

 Piora, Le Lautaret, and Abries, and here it sometimes abounds at 

 7000ft. -8000ft. elevation, whilst it is also found on the pasture slopes 

 of Saltdalen and Bodo, in Lapland, in the Altai at 6000ft., as well as 

 among the mountains of Thibet and Mongolia, and Leech says that, 

 at How-kow and Ta-chien-lu, it was found up to an elevation of 

 10000ft. As already noted, its chief haunts in the south of England 

 are on the cretaceous formation, e.g., the whole line of the North Downs 

 through Surrey and Kent, to Ashford and Dovei,the sheltered hollows 

 at the foot of the chalk slopes at Folkestone, at Cuxton, and in the 

 Chatham district; the chalk-clowns of Surrey, the chalk-pits at 

 Worlington, Dorking, Guildford, as well as the sheltered hollows of the 

 Eanmore slope ; also the South Downs, e.g., the chalk-downs 

 of Sussex, abundant from Brighton to Claylon, near Lewes, etc. ; 

 very plentiful locally on the Berkshire downs, as well as 

 through those of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ; it is 

 abundant also on the Wiltshire downs, in sheltered nooks in the 

 Salisbury district, and along the foot of the downs at Devizes ; on the 

 chalk-hills of Bucks, between Kimble and Great Missenden, with 

 Adscita statices, Nemeophila plantaginis, etc. (Rowland-Brown). It also 

 occurs on the hills and railway banks about Bedford and Luton 

 (Barrett); in the sheltered nooks and chalk -pits of the Gogmagog hills, 

 near Cambridge (Lee); and abounds in Norfolk on the chalk bordering 

 the Breck Sands (Atmore). It is abundant all over the mountain- 

 limestone of the Cleveland district of Somerset, and on the Cotteswolds, 

 where there is a varied vernal carpet of wild flowers, including the 

 kidney-vetch, in June (C. J. Watkins); it is also noted as common in 

 a stone quarry on Stinchcombe Hill, in the Cotteswolds (Spiller). In 

 Lancashire it is confined to the limestone districts (Sharp), and is 

 reported locally from railway-banks in Cumberland, at St. Bees and 

 Wreay, whilst it is said to be common on the railway- banks at Tenby 



