152 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



to the Latin alba spina, as used by 

 Ovid, and means literally "white- 

 thorn." The French name for the 

 hawthorn is aubespine ; Welsh, drcenen 

 wen, white thorn ; Gaelic, sgitheach 

 geal, the white haw-bearing plant; 

 sgeach, a haw ; drioghionn geal, means 

 the white thorn. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL 

 LOCALITIES. 



IN THE CHERRY COUNTRY. 



By John Henderson. 



There is a large tract of wild, wooded 

 country in the southern corner of Oxford- 

 shire, which is capital collecting ground, 

 although perhaps entirely unknown as such 

 to any reader of the Young Naturalist. The 

 district is very sparsely populated. The 

 neighbourhood of Wyfold Court, the mag- 

 nificent mansion built by the late Mr. Her- 

 mon, of " Horrock's long cloth " fame, is so 

 dull and desolate to those who have no eyes 

 for the beauties of nature, and so far from 

 any village beershop or human habitation, 

 that the bricklayers and labourers employed 

 on the buildings some few years ago declared 

 that working there was only to be corn- 

 to penal servitude. You can, in fact, go 

 miles in any direction without finding a 

 town or village of any size, and from the 

 numerous woods of the wild black cherry, 

 that grow in countless multitudes here- 

 abouts, this is called the "Cherry Country." 



With the sharp but palatable little fruit 

 we have nothing to do in these pages. To 

 the Entomologist and Ornithologist this 

 quietness is a certain proof of richness in 

 the species they seek, which occur here un- 

 disturbed, save by the ordinary revolutions 



of Nature, year after year, as they doubt- 

 less did in bygone days when the martyr 

 King, Charles the First, visited the locality 

 and amused himself whiling away the hours 

 playing bowls at Collin's End. To this 

 day they show a portrait at an old house, 

 formerly the inn, of a woman who kept the 

 place in the time of the royal visits. The 

 old Manor House at Maple Durham was 

 another favourite spot with this unfortunate 

 monarch, who used to ride over there from 

 Caversham or Cawsam as it was then called 

 according to the chroniclers. The nearest 

 points, however, for our purpose are Pep- 

 pard and Nettlebed, on the Chiltern Hills, 

 where a windmill on an eminence, forms a 

 landmark which can be seen from the hills 

 of the neighbouring counties of Berks, Bucks, 

 and Hants, at a considerable distance. 

 King William in," of glorious memory," and 

 his successor Queen Anne (whose decease 

 was always the puzzle of our youth), both 

 visited here, so the place has some little his- 

 torical interest. 



Nettlebed is five miles NW. of Henley- 

 on-Thames, and we must foot it to do any 

 good in this thickly-wooded district. From 

 its near neighbourhood to Buckinghamshire, 

 which borders it on the east and north, its 

 suitability as a habitat for the various Cus- 

 pidates known as the Prominents is appar- 

 ent, indeed the same trees — beech, oak, 

 maple, and birch— are found here. The 

 invariable objects of our search have been 

 these beautiful moths ; but probably from 

 the little time available for beating the 

 foliage for larvae — in which state they are 

 generally found, — not a great many have 

 been recorded. It is another thing with 

 Fritillaries : Paphia, Aglaia, and Adippe are 

 all easily met with, as the wild raspberry 

 and violets grow in abundance in the open 

 woods. 



Starting either from Reading or the little 

 Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames, 

 famous for its regatta in the end of June, 



