in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, and its range in England is re- 

 stricted to the oak woods of the midland, eastern, and southern counties, 

 coming up on the east coast as far as Lincolnshire, and extending as far 

 west as Torrington, in North Devon, and the Forest of Dean, in Mon- 

 mouthshire. In the counties of Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire, Berk- 

 shire, and Middlesex, none have been seen for a great many years. This 

 beautiful butterfly is said to be only found in oak woods. Why this should 

 be so, when the caterpillar feeds on poplar and sallow, has not been explained. 

 It is fond of disporting itself on the tops of the loftiest trees, and the old 

 mode of capturing him was by a ring net, fixed at the end of a pole some 

 twenty or thirty feet long, and so sweeping him off as he sat on his leafy 

 throne, or in one of his evolutions, when he quitted his seat for a tarn in the 

 air. As this method of capture proved rather unsuccessful, the length of the 

 implement making it rather an unwieldy one, both in use and for carriage to 

 the place of action ; other means have been tried with more or less success, 

 to induce the monarch to descend from his lofty throne. A sod, or some- 

 thing similar flung into the air, has sometimes brought him down, whether 

 from curiosity or indignation at the intrusion. Another plan is to take 

 advantage of his royal taste for game, and so potent is the attraction of the 

 haut-gout for the royal palate, that if any animal, or part of one, not too 

 recently slaughtered, be suspended near the well-known haunts of his majesty, 

 ten to one but its savour will bring him down to earth to taste the luxurious 

 morsel, and so engrossed does he become, that he may be swept off with the 

 net without difficulty. Cowardice is not one of his attributes, and if he has 

 formed a preference for any special spot, he will risk loss of liberty and life 

 rather than forsake it. 



The first account we have of the Purple Emperor being a British species 

 is in John Bay's " Historia Insectorum," published in 1710. He informs 

 us that it was taken in the month of J uly, in the neighbourhood of Heven- 

 ingh am Castle, Essex, in the year 1695, by D. Courtman. 



In his " English Moths and Butterflies," published in 1773, Benjamin 

 Wilkes writes, " The Purple Emperor, or Emperor of the Woods. Neither 

 the caterpillar nor chrysalis of this charming fly has yet been discovered, al- 

 though sought for with the utmost diligence several years past. The butterfly 

 appears at' the end of June and beginning of July, and may be taken in 

 Coomb Wood in Surrey, about Westram in Kent, and in other places. It 

 flies like a hawk, delighting to soar aloft and skim in the air. When it 

 settles it is usually on some extreme part of the oak, haze], or ash tree ; and 

 what is very singular, I myself have seen twenty of them taken on the same 

 branch, one after another, for although the fly seems to be extremely wild 



