468 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



$> s were noticed at Oxton flying low over the gorse, and constantly- 

 settling on it as if seeking a place to oviposit. They seemed to have quite 

 deserted the hollies, totally unlike the first brood, which kept up high 

 among them, and rarely came within reach ; far more $ s than J s 

 were seen in the second brood. Jager states that the insect was in 

 abundance at the end of April, 1886, at Brockenhurst, flying round 

 the hollies and oaks, high up from tree to tree, and never before had 

 he noticed it so abundant except in August, 1880, when it abounded 

 on the ivy on Netley Abbey. Fowler further observes that, in the 

 New Forest district — at Ringwood, etc.- — he 1 has observed the $ s of 

 the second brood feeding upon bramble-blossom, and has noticed that 

 while the examples of the spring brood are rarely seen outside the 

 Forest, those of the summer brood are scattered over all the district 

 around. Harwood observes (Ent., xix., p. 88) that, at Colchester, it 

 appears to show extreme partiality for flowers of Aucuba japonica in the 

 spring, and it has been suggested that the butterfly helps to fertilise 

 the blossom, as the fruit comes to maturity here, but Harwood 

 suspects the larvae may feed thereon. Sabine notes (op. cit.) that, in the 

 Erith district, the butterfly seems much attached to a particular spot, 

 and describes one in a small shrubbery containing, among other trees 

 and shrubs, laurustinus and candleberry myrtles but not any 

 hollies ; here he says that, provided the species was out and the 

 weather suitable, he could always make sure of capturing them, 

 although not noticed elsewhere, and that, by sitting down and waiting 

 for them, he once captured seventeen in an hour, several of them off 

 one particular sprig of candleberry myrtle, on which shrub, as well as 

 on the laurustinus, they were very fond of settling. Grapes also notes 

 that, in the Colchester district, it flits about the holly-hedges in May 

 and August, and many examples of the spring brood have been netted 

 whilst hovering over, or settling upon, the flowers of the old holly- 

 trees on Donyland Heath and adjoining wood near Colchester ; it also 

 flits about hawthorn hedges, and occasionally settles on gooseberry- 

 bushes in the garden, apparently only tending to prove that, in those 

 localities where the insect is periodically plentiful, it occasionally 

 wanders from its staple food to sip the sweets of the blossoms of other 

 berry-bearing shrubs and trees. Biggs says that, in Epping Forest, 

 the earliest imagines are often out in abundance before the holly has 

 blossomed, although it later frequents the blossom, apparently for the 

 purpose of feeding ; here, too, the second brood is much less abundant 

 than the early one. Jeffreys notes that, in the Clevedon district, the 

 species is double-brooded, the spring examples flying over the holly 

 when in bloom, and being also specially attracted by the blossoms of 

 laurustinus, apparently, however, only for the sweets to be obtained 

 therefrom ; in August here, the females are to be seen flitting over 

 the ivy, whilst in 1885 it was taken feeding on bramble-blossom ; 

 throughout the chalk district of Dorset it is also double-brooded. He 

 further notes the species as particularly abundant in Carmarthen in April 

 and May, 1896, and also in July, 1896, in Somersetshire ; the second- 

 brood being seen in town gardens, in lanes flying over hedges, and at 

 bramble bloom, and on the outskirts of, and open spaces in, woods ; 

 a large number of $ s also appeared to be flying over ivy and visiting 

 the bramble-bloom, but, although those on the latter were carefully 

 watched, they appeared only to be attracted by the sweets thereof. 



