BITHYS QUERCUS. 263 



Alderson observed them in "myriads" in the New Forest, in July, 

 1900. Bussell records them as swarming around birch-trees in a copse 

 at Fleet ; and Eogers states that it swarms in the oak-woods of the Teign- 

 mouth district. Aigner-Abafi says that, in Hungary, the females mostly 

 sit about on the leaves, and that they are males that fly so freely above 

 the trees, in swarms, especially towards evening, but the species prefers 

 young woods, and is found sometimes about mere oak-bushes. Jeffreys 

 notes that, near Barmouth, the species was observed flitting over the oak- 

 trees, and they were especially noticeable as the sun was declining in the 

 afternoon. Norgate, too, saw the species in Foxley Wood, most abundant 

 towards evening, and one was caught at the same place on a tree-trunk 

 within an inch of a sugar patch. Of the habit of resting on ash, Davis 

 notes (Ent., ii., p. 312) : " Whilst collecting in July, at West Wick- 

 ham, I shook a small sapling ash, and observed several specimens fly 

 from it, and almost immediately return and settle again on the leaves, 

 in most instances upon the identical leaves from which they had been 

 disturbed ; further observations proved this to be the case with most 

 of the young ash-trees in the wood, and I could have captured dozens 

 had I been so disposed. On the same day, I observed about twenty 

 specimens gambolling and settling upon an ash-tree, near Beckenham, 

 no oak being near." Sturgess observes that it was so common, in 

 1856, at Kettering, that quite forty were counted sporting round one 

 lime-tree. Cox observed it flying around the tops of elms as well as 

 oaks at Abbey Wood, in July, 1859; and Bogue says that, although 

 common around oak-trees in Burford Wood, near Shepton Mallet, it 

 sometimes also shows a decided preference for ash. This preference 

 for ash was noted by Stephens, in 1828, when he observed that it 

 frequented the tops of lofty oak- and ash-trees. Bird observes 

 (Ent. Flee, xvii., p. 311) that, at Tintern and Llandogo, this 

 species appears almost to ignore an oak-tree, with the exception of 

 females when presumably ovipositing, principally for ash, but what the 

 attraction is he does not know, unless it is the presence of honey- dew. 

 He says: "In this neighbourhood, where we collect, at the end of July 

 and beginning of August, each ash-tree has several of these butterflies 

 settled on, or crawling about, its leaves and twigs, or else flying 

 round the tops, pursuing and fighting each other, and when one is 

 driven away it will generally fly off to another ash. Very occasionally 

 they will settle on the leaves of an oak, hazel, or wild cherry, but the 

 ash is by far the most frequented. We have even seen a small ash, 

 little more than a bush, with three of these butterflies settled on it at one 

 time. Only once have we noticed the species at flowers, when a female 

 was observed this year (1906), late in the season busily extracting the 

 sweets from Eupatoriwn cannabinum." He further notes (in litt.) : " On 

 July 25th, 1906, in the morning, I was surprised to see a specimen of 

 Bithys quercits flying quietly about bracken and settling on the fronds 

 to sun itself. The bracken was on a very steep hillside, and about the 

 same altitude as the tops of the oak and other trees growing below, 

 which may, I think, explain its forsaking them, perhaps mistaking 

 the bracken-covered hillside for the tops of a wood. I watched it for 

 a little while and noticed that it liked to sit tail to the sun, and, unlike 

 Edwardsia ic-album, occasionally expanded its wings a little when 

 at rest. It was also very fond of rubbing its hindwings up and down 

 in opposite directions against the forewings, keeping the latter still, 



