WRIGHT — ON COLIAS EDUSA. 7 



Mr. Montgomery expressed his opinion that the female bird belong- 

 ing to the Society was in the second year's plumage. Only some 

 two or three had been taken in this country in the adult dress ; he had 

 himself seen some five specimens only, all males, of the first year's 

 plumage. 



In reply to a remark from the President, as to the circumstance of 

 the seemingly comparative rarity of the females, 



Mr. Montgomery said that this might possibly be a misconception, 

 owing to the great similarity in plumage of the young birds, with which 

 the females may have been confounded. 



Mr. "Williams recorded also, on the part of Mr. Sandford Palmer, the 

 occurrence of a young male of the night heron, shot at Castle Barnard, 

 on the 1 6th of November last, by Colonel White. 



A vote of thanks was unanimously passed to Dr. Harvey for his 

 kindness in lending his specimen of this bird for exhibition. 



E. Perceval Wright, M.D., E. L. S., &c, then offered the follow- 

 ing " jSTotes on Colzas edusa." He exhibited a series of specimens of 

 the Clouded Yellow Butterfly [Colzas edusd). Two of these specimens 

 had been taken in the month of September last, by his friend, Mr. 

 Dunlop, on the Hill of Howth, thus adding the county of Dublin to the 

 list of Irish habitats for this insect. He also mentioned that he had 

 seen many, and captured several, specimens of the same species in the 

 latter part of the same month at Newcastle, on the borders of the Bay of 

 Dundrum, county of Down ; and that his friend, the Rev. J. Bristow, had 

 captured it in the neighbourhood of Belfast, thus giving a much more 

 northern range in Ireland to this species than any as yet recorded. 

 Although accounted rather a rare insect, yet it was to be found most 

 years in the southern counties, especially Cork and Kerry, and often in 

 great numbers ; and the Treasurer of this Society had written a paper 

 in our Journal,* on its occurrence in the county of Wexford. In Mr. 

 R. P. Williams's paper there was, however, nothing original, as this 

 locality had been previously recorded. But in it the insect was de- 

 scribed as very much rarer than, as appeared to Dr. Wright, it 

 really is. 



The geographical range of this insect is remarkable. In England it 

 is found pretty common in the south, but occurs as high north as York ; 

 and on the authority of his friend, Mr. E. Birchall, Dr. Wright men- 

 tioned that it is found in Scotland up to the latitude of Glasgow. Mr. 

 Stainton says, u Towards the end of August, Colzas edusa, more beau- 

 tiful but less valued than its congener (C. hyale), appears frequenting 

 clover fields, and the sunny sloping banks of railways on the south;" 

 and the following more or less midland localities are, amongst others, 

 given: — Burton-on-Trent, Darlington, the Lake District, and Man- 



* "Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Dublin," vol. ii., p. 17 (1857). 



