30 



THE YOUNG NATUKALIST. 



successfully palmed ■ on Doubleday, Newman, Stevens, and others, the 

 swindlers could not be content. Newman promised to figure Niobe, but 

 after several months had gone he explained that he since doubted the genuine- 

 ness of the captures, and had suppressed the figures, &c, promised, as he had 

 also suppressed communications announcing the capture of Daplidice, Lath- 

 onia, and a round dozen of Podalirius. They could not be content with the 

 brisk trade doing in British Niobe, they " over-egged " the pudding. DapH- 

 dice was possible, Lathonia was also possible, but the two together not likely 

 to fall into the hands of the finder of Niobe, but when Podalirius was said to 

 be taken also the game was up. Some people can swallow a great deal. 

 Processionea went down easily, the crow's nest story was so simple. It could 

 not be a lie. But when Mr. Batchelor began to offer Sacraria and Pur- 

 puraria in addition to Daplidice and Lathonia, why he too " over-egged n 

 his pudding and spoiled his market. Mr. W. Brooks may not be the individ- 

 ual who planted Hera at Starcross, but he had better not have " taken " 

 Artemisia, if he too did not want to "over-egg" his pudding. But there is 

 a very ugly question asked about Mr. Brooks in last month's yellow maga- 

 zine, which, if he cannot answer satisfactorily in the negative, will dispose of 

 Hera for a long time to come. 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



"Climatic Causes affecting the Distribution of Lepidoptera in 

 Great Britain," by A. O. WALKER, F.L.S. 



This little pamphlet, reprinted from the "Proceedings of the Chester 

 Society of Natural Science," is most interesting to us, and confirms the view 

 that it is our cold and sunless climate, with its superabundant moisture, that 

 causes butterflies to be so scarce in our Island. Mr. Walker shows con- 

 clusively that butterflies are more abundant in the East of Britain than in the 

 West ; and that the difference is specially to be noticed if we travel from the 

 South-east to the North-west. He shows that of the 63 butterflies occurring 

 in Britain, " excluding the extinct Hippothoce," 57, or over 90% occur in the 

 South-eastern and South-midland Counties, and the Eastern Counties (Essex, 

 Suffolk, and Norfolk) have 56. The South-western (Wilts, Dorset, Devon, 

 Somerset, and Cornwall) have only 52, though they have a much more genial 

 winter climate ; and the Chester district, in which he includes the Welsh 

 counties of Flint and Denbigh, has only 37 or less than 59%. He also ob- 

 serves that the same rule obtains on the Continent. Belgium, for instance, 



