182 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



the east side of the island, which is a natural harbour — sheltered by Rat 

 Island from all winds, but the E. and N.E. — the heat was something tropical. 

 Subsequent investigation showed that Lundy was like the mainland, feeling 

 the effects of the long continued drought, the store of fresh water being very' 

 limited, and the surface burnt up and scorched by the sun. There has until 

 just recently (August 18th) been literally no rain since the spring; and a 

 new reservoir, or pool of granite blocks, built close to the farmhouse, was 

 quite dry in July. This erection was being taken in hand during the pre- 

 vious summer, and would in ordinary circumstances, have afforded a large 

 supply of fresh water. On landing, the first objects to meet the view were 

 the little 6-spot BurnetS (Zygaana filipendula) , which were flying in the 

 utmost profusion. Upon the highest point near the lighthouse on the west 

 coast, near the " Devil's Punch Bowl " (a curious natural hollow in the 

 granite rocks), and all along the western coast the perfect insects swarmed ; 

 while the pale straw-coloured cocoon, with the black protruding pupa 

 case, were attached to blades of grass, heather stems, rushes, and as 

 an old collector once remarked, "you could even find them on chalk 

 blocks/' 



JN ext to the Burnets were in point of numbers the Common Blue, P. alexis 

 {Icarus), the females were flying pretty freely, but the males prevailed. Some 

 of the gentler sex are much suffused with blue, and hardly to be distinguished 

 from the males, and the brown specimens are found mostly at one end of the 

 island. 



In a sheltered nook, where the only trees on the Island exist, a larva of 

 Vanassa atalanta was procured, it was full-fed, and within 24 hours was 

 firmly fastened up by the tail to the roof of the collecting box, and the per- 

 fect insect has since emerged. Working mostly on the granite boulders and 

 scrambling over the heather-covered slopes, we netted a fair quantity of 

 Satyrus semele (the Grayling). The specimens are bright, and rather darker 

 than those usually met with, but not so large as a series of the same insect 

 from the New Forest and Berkshire, but a trifle larger than Isle of Man 

 specimens. It is usually a rock loving butterfly, and bids fair to continue 

 long with us, for each year the numbers seem to increase instead of diminish, 

 and the mainland examples are very fine indeed. 



On the higher points of land a couple of S. megara (Wall) were taken, 

 they were both males, aud rather diminutive little butterflies. This is a species 

 which evidently is on the downward track. Years ago it abounded in the 

 Oxfordshire and other districts, in roads and open spaces, but in last ten 

 summers I have not met with a dozen specimens, one at Box Hill, in 1884, 

 a couple on the top of Hillsborough (a high part of the coast near Ilfracombe), 



