104 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



Gonepteryx Rhamni. — This is one of our butterflies which appears yearly 

 in about an average number, where it is found at all, and is seldom lacking if 

 Rhamnus catharticus or R.frangula grow in a locality. 



Llucophasia Sinapis. — Now scarce in many of the woods which are re- 

 ported to be its habitats. I should think it has been influenced by the ungenial 

 springs of late years, killing the female ere oviposition in April. 



Anthocharis Card amines. — Has disappeared from numerous places near 

 London where it used to be common, this is, however, due to local causes, 

 such as the proceedings of builders, or the conversion of grass fields into 

 market gardens. Farther away in various districts of Kent and Surrey, it is 

 to be taken much as formerly. 



Hesperia Sylvanus. — This is, at least, one instance of a butterfly quite as 

 common now, wherever 1 have observed it, as it was thirty years ago ; not 

 so, it seems, in the north. 



Hesperia Linea. — When the late Edward Newman wrote his British 

 Butterflies, he noted that this species (which is not recorded in Scotland) had 

 gone from a large proportion of its old localities in England ; it is certainly 

 much less common along the chalk banks and ridges of Kent than I have 

 seen it in the past.* 



Gravesend. 



THE LEPIDOPTERA OF LONDON. 



By ERNEST ANDERSON. 



There is one great thing to be said in favour of the study of Lepidoptera 

 as a recreation, and it is that no matter how we are situated, or where we 

 may be, it will nearly always be found possible to meet with objects with 

 which to amuse ourselves and to investigate. To some, this may appear too 

 bold an assertion, but if they will only turn their attention to the subject, 

 they will find that even in the most densely populated portions of large cities, 

 there will still be found several species of Lepidoptera, which maintain a 

 precarious existence amid the dirt and squalor, which are, alas ! too prevalent 

 in such localties. 



The common white (Pieris rapce), after barely escaping mutilation from 

 the ragged urchins in the court below, flits to the make -shift window box, 

 which constitutes some inhabitants only garden, and obeying the law of 



* I shall be pleased to have further reports on Butterflies, and will reserve anything I 

 may have to say in reply for the present. — J.E.R. 



