3586 Insects. 



soms of the mainland, from whence I thought it probable the wind 

 might have carried it to its present exile ; but not being aware of my 

 good intentions, it defied all my endeavours." Now " I suspect " a 

 little entomological knowledge would not have hindered any " vague 

 and undefined enjoyment" of the scene, and he would not have sym- 

 pathized with the presumed exile of a carnivorous insect from citron 

 blossoms ! 



Let us return. This New Forest, in Hampshire, was so called by 

 William the Conqueror, who amplified a forest previously existing, 

 till a tract of country twenty miles long and fifteen broad was con- 

 verted to his royal uses. Twenty churches and many more villages 

 were cleared away to make room for oaks and deer, the villagers be- 

 ing evicted and driven away without any recompense. It is not won- 

 derful to find a historian of the time, writing thus of the deaths of his 

 sons, William Rufus and Richard, in the forest : — " Ferunt autem 

 multi, quod ideo hi duo filii Willielmi Regis in ilia sylva judicio Dei 

 perierunt." 



Many extensive portions are now enclosed and cultivated, but the 

 forest proper is still estimated to contain 63,000 acres. Some parts 

 are quite open, others are occupied by young plantations, chiefly of 

 oak and fir, and the rest is covered with forest trees, principally oak 

 and beech, of all sizes and ages, on which generation after generation 

 of some of our rarest insects live and die unseen by human eyes, some 

 few straggling specimens alone excepted. 



There are two villages in the forest, Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst, 

 at which entomologists usually put up ; the neighbourhood of the lat- 

 ter however is accounted the best district, and though the inn there is 

 of less pretension than that at Lyndhurst, it is quite good enough for 

 country quarters, and has the advantage of not costing so much. An 

 insect-hunter, when " roughing it," should rather be content to be 

 waited on at the hands of a village maiden, than look out for the ob- 

 sequiousness of a full-dressed man-waiter, with its somewhat costly 

 finale. And if he have a touch of Nature in him, he will wish for no 

 more. 



I add the names of a few of the finest Lepidoptera that have been 

 found in this*locality. 



Deiopeia pulchella. Near Christchurch ; September. 



Eulepia Cribium. Near Ringwood ; June. 



Limacodes Asellus. June. 



Stauropus Fagi. Larvae on oaks ; June. 



Notodonta trepida. Larva; on oaks ; June. 



