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not less uncongenial ; a few half-animated creatures alone struggled into 

 being : yet this Painted Lady was fostered into life, and became the com- 

 monest butterfly of the year. Some years ago, perhaps 1808, a year in which 

 both the Painted Lady and the Clouded Yellow occurred plentifully, he 

 noticed that a quantity of earth was raised in cutting a canal, and in the 

 ensuing summer, on the Jierbage that sprang up from this new soil on the 

 bank, this butterfly was found in abundance, where it had not been observed 

 for many years before." 



A correspondent of the tf Entomological Magazine " (see Vol. II., p. 114), 

 states " that on the 8th of October, 1833, the numbers of this butterfly, in 

 the neighbourhood of Tooting, Surrey, surpassed everything of the kind he 

 had ever witnessed. It was highly delightful to see those lovely insects sporting 

 from flower to flower — but the dahlia seemed to be their favourite. I can- 

 not but suspect that they migrated from some part of the country ; for, pre- 

 vious to that day, I had not seen a single specimen in the neighbourhood, 

 and but very few since : again it was evident, they must have been winging 

 their way for some time, as most of them were in a faded condition/'' The 

 same circumstances are more strongly confirmed in a communication from 

 Mr. Blyth, to the " Field Naturalist" (Vol. L, p. 470), who asserts that, 

 "for a single day the species appeared everywhere in abundance, and the day 

 after not one was anywhere to be seen." 



The Rev. P. 0. Morris informs us in his " British Butterflies," published 

 in 1853, that the " Painted Lady was plentiful near Palmouth in 1849, but 

 scarce in 1850 and 1851 ; in 1850 not one was seen near Stoke-by-Nayland, 

 while in 1851 it was to be seen in extreme abundance there." In the same 

 year it was common in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Dorsetshire, and other parts 

 of England. 



The Eev. J. Hellins (see " Entomologists' Monthly Magazine," Vol. IL, 

 p. 84), calls attention to the fact that Vanessa cardui was not only excessively 

 abundant in 1865, but also varied much in size. "The smallest specimens," 

 he goes on to say, "we took at Exeter, expanded less than 1" 11"', whilst 

 the largest measured very nearly 3" in expanse. One of these giants is re- 

 markable, also, for a small white ocellus, edged with black, placed in the 

 largest yellowish blotch of the fore- wings." In the same volume, Mr. P. 

 Smith writes, "At the western extremity of Ilfracombe stands a parish 

 church, passing behind which you enter a Devonshire lane ; its beauty will be 

 appreciated by every one who has visited Devon, and he will know how it 

 winds, and turns, and winds again, until you arrive at a gate at its extremity 

 that opens on to the breezy downs. The last fifty yards of the hedge, on the 

 right hand of the lane, is covered by a mantle, of ivy, which on the 9th of 



