15 



had one eight years, that lived entirely all the time upon the insects, slugs, 

 and worms which he found in the garden." 



In the li Young Naturalist " for 1880, is a notice by the Editor on a 

 flight of Pirn* brassicce at Hartlepool. "It was a fine hot day in June, 

 with scarcely any wind, when my attention was attracted by an unusual 

 number of them flying past. The butterflies rapidly increased in numbers, 

 many hundreds, nay, thousands were in sight. They kept passing in such 

 enormous numbers that Mr. Darwin's expression " snowing butterflies " is 

 the most appropriate that can be used. From the direction of their flight, 

 it was evident they came from the sea, and a fisherman told me, that he 

 noticed them some miles off the laud in immense swarms, some alighting on 

 the boat, others appearing for a moment to settle on the surface of the ocean, 

 and then rise from it again, the sea at the time being perfectly smooth. They 

 seemed, he said, either to come from the open sea, or from the extreme end of 

 the high Yorkshire land, that bounds our view on the opposite side of the 

 Bay." 



P1ERIS RAP2E. 



Small Cabbage White. 



Rap^, Linn. Ea'pce, from the name of one of its food-plants — Brassica 

 rapce (Rape). 



This is a more abundant butterfly than the last, especially in the West of 

 England, and occurs probably all over the British Isles, although it has never 

 been recorded from the Shetlands, but I have taken it myself in the Isle of 

 Skye. 



It occurs all over Europe except in the Polar regions, in North Africa, 

 Northern and Western Asia, and Japan. 



In North America it has only been lately introduced, but is spreading 

 rapidly throughout Canada and the United States. The first specimen 

 appears to have been taken at Quebec in 1858. What is more remarkable 

 is, that a yellow variety (Novanglia, Scudd) scarcely known in Europe, has 

 appeared in America, and it will be interesting to see whether it will even- 

 tually become the dominant American form of the insect. 



In the " Lepidoptera of Scotland " by Dr. Buchanan White, we read, 

 " There seems some reason to doubt whether this species and .Brassier are 

 not introductions in the North, since they are probably never found at any 

 distance from cultivation, nor the larvae upon any but cultivated plants." 



There is a very brief description of it in Merrett's Pinax, 1667 ; but a 

 longer one in Lister's edition of Goedart, 1685. 



