314 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



London, although Eaydon Wood, near Ipswich, and certain woods in 

 Berkshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Hants were then well-known 

 habitats. Moses Harris, in 1775, and Lewin, in 1795, made it rather 

 a hedge-loving species. Hedges and woods are still usually given as 

 its chief haunts, e.g., the woods and lanes about Sheldwich (Stowell), 

 open places on the edges of woods in Berkshire (Hamm), hedges in 

 the neighbourhood of Exeter, where the species is possibly kept rather 

 scarce by clipping and trimming (Hellins), blackthorn hedges near 

 Colchester and Langham (Harwood) ; lanes near Newtown, in 

 Montgomeryshire (Tetley), abundant in the woodlands throughout 

 the whole of the Dovey Valley (Crotch) ; in the Trench Woods of 

 Worcestershire (Edmunds), in the plantations and woods on the 

 Whitbarrow side of Underbarrow Moss (Gregson), etc. Now and again 

 other kinds of localities are given. Arnold notes the sunny angle of 

 a Dartmoor trout stream, on one side endless woods of beech and oak, 

 and, on the other, the gorse and heather of great "tors" mounting up 

 to the blue sky. Shut in thus from every wind, all the butterflies 

 of the district seem to have accumulated here, and, among others, 

 R. betulae were numerous on the oaksprays along the sunny hanger- 

 sides ; but B. querciis were present in hundreds, dancing around the tall 

 ash-bushes in half-dozens, the silver-grey of their underwings matching 

 wonderfully, when at rest, the pale gloss of the leaves amongst which 

 they lived. Mathew mentions the sloe-bushes, by the side of a 

 rushy moor near Instow ; on the Berwyns, it occurs on a hillside 

 among birch (Sharp) ; whilst at Taunton, it is noted as a garden insect 

 by Kawlinson. In Ireland, also, its haunts are much as in England, 

 the species being very common in lanes and on roadside hedges 

 in the south and west of the country (Birchall). In France, it is, in 

 the lowlands, found in similar places to those in England, but it also 

 extends for some distance into the mountains, e.g., Digne and Alios, 

 as already noted (antea, p. 313). Constant observes that, in the dept. 

 Saone-et-Loire, it is found principally by hedges and in bushy places ; 

 Dupont says that it occurs in the forest area of the Pont de l'Arche 

 district ; Gurney, in the forests of the Pas du Calais ; in thickets and 

 orchards of the dept. Doubs (Bruand), in Morbihan in woods and gardens 

 (Griffith), in the Gironde about blackthorn hedges (Trimoulet), whilst 

 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, as well as in Alsace, it is met principally on the 

 outskirts of woods, by hedge-sides, and in gardens (Cantener). In the 

 Basses- Alpes it loves rather rough ground, e.g., the glen above the 

 baths at Digne, the mountain -side at Alios (Tutt), also the rough 

 ground at the top of the hill above the cemetery at Digne (Rowland- 

 Brown) ; by roadsides, etc., in the Alpes-Maritimes (Bromilow) ; on 

 rough ground among brambles and sloe-bushes throughout the whole 

 chain of the Pyrenees (Rondou), etc. In Germany, it occurs on the 

 outskirts of woods, by hedgerows and on bushy ground (Speyer); it pre- 

 fers sunny hillsides in East and West Prussia (Speiser), and is especially 

 abundant among the plum-trees on the bastion of Courbiere, at 

 Graudenz (Riesen); occurs freely among the sloe-bushes in the forest 

 near Splietsdorf (Kruger) ; in Mecklenburg, prefers the outskirts of 

 woods where blackthorn grows freely (Schmidt), but also occurs in 

 gardens at Friedland (Stange), and in gardens and among sloe-bushes 

 at Parchim, especially in the Eichbusch, and on the outskirts of the 

 Sonnenberg (Gillmer); at Liibeck, too, it affects the outskirts of woods 



