284. 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



be in admitting the same specimen if j 

 captured in France, -before it fled over i 

 to England ? We confess that we can ! 

 see none, and if such specimen be 

 labelled with the locality no confusion j 

 will follow, and much light will by this | 

 means be thrown upon the subject of i 

 variation. In our opinion a British j 

 insect, is one, not only reared from the 

 egg in this country, but able to leave j 

 progeny to perpetuate the' race. Several j 

 butterflies have undoubtedly been taken j 

 here, singly, or at rare intervals, that i 

 have never gained a permanent, or even 

 temporary footing. Lyccena boetica, for 

 instance, a species of which we know 

 no reason why it should not occur here. 

 Melitcea dia has been taken more than 

 once, and neither of these butterflies 

 are of very migratory habits. Danais 

 chrysippus was taken both on the wing 

 and in the larval state, and it is so 

 ubiquitous that no one would be sur- 

 prised to find it effect a permanent 

 settlement. Birds are of more regular 

 habits than butterflies, at least so far 

 as migration is concerned, but birds are 

 divided into three, or even four classes. 

 The first, residents, resembles those 

 butterflies that are undoubtedly natives, 

 that can be found every year, and that 

 are known to breed regularly. The 

 class of birds called migrants, which is 

 divided into two, summer migrants, 

 which come here, to breed, but do not 

 winter with us, and winter migrants, 

 which comes to us for the winter, but 

 go elsewhere to breed ; this class has 

 no representative among our butterflies. 

 The last class of birds is called casual 



or occasional visitors, and such species 

 as boat lea, dia, &c, maybe taken as fair 

 representatives of it. But to make up 

 for the want of the second class, we 

 might with propriety call certain 

 species, ■'■irregular visitors," and in it 

 might be included, such as Daplidice, 

 Antiopa, and Lathonia, whose frequent 

 occurrence is certain, but which do not 

 appear with such regularity as to satisfy 

 everyone that they are truly natives. 

 We expect many of our readers will 

 regard these remarks as terribly 

 heterodox, particularly if they possess 

 British specimens of any of these 

 species, but certainly our list of species 

 are in a very unsatisfactory state, and 

 till something of this kind be done ; 

 Ave will never attain the knowledge of 

 our fauna, that the ornithologist lias 

 gained. Perhaps too it is presumptuous 

 in us, who only seek to teach the young, 

 to advance a proposition of this kind, 

 but we have our opinion on the subject 

 whatever it may be worth, and having 

 undertaken to give an account of our 

 British Butterflies, we thought the 

 present the most fitting time for giving 

 utterance to our thoughts. We shall 

 be glad to have the opinion of others on 

 the subject. 



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