THE YOUNG 



were a deep green, and there was a dark 

 mark from the eye, back across the head. 

 The bird evidently nested in or near the 

 garden, but unfortunately the nest was not 

 found. The birds had a shrill piping note. 

 — (Miss) E. Hutchinson, Grantsfield, Leo- 

 minster. 



6. 



H. dispar, the Gipsy Moth, is largely 

 reared in this country, but I have never 

 seen a record of its capture, while I have 

 heard doubts expressed more than once as 

 to it being really a native. Is it taken any- 

 where in this country now except where it 

 has been introduced ? — R. Oswald. 



REPUTED BRITISH BUTTER- 

 FLIES. 



By John E. Robson. 

 No. IV. Polymmatus Bceficus. 

 The occurence of this butterfly at Bourne- 

 mouth, in Hampshire, during the past 

 season, as recorded in our last volume, has 

 called attention to it again as a species that 

 might possibly establish itself permanently 

 in Britain. It was first taken in this country 

 in the year 1859 » specimen on the 4th 

 August, near Christchurch, Hampshire, by 

 Mr. Latour. Another on the same day at 

 Brighton, by Mr. McArthur, on the downs 

 near the sea, where a third specimen was 

 taken the next day by the same collector. 

 It is said to have been very abundant that 

 year in France and in the Channel Islands, 

 but it is noticed that the specimens did not 

 occur in the portion of coast nearest to 

 France, neither has the specimen recorded 

 this year. Newman, quoting Milliere gives 

 the food as being the seed pods of bladder 

 senna (Colutea arhorescens) which is not a 

 British plant ; but the larva feeds also on 

 the pods of the common pea, and of other 

 leguminous plants. But even with the com- 

 mon pea as a food, there are difficulties in 

 the way of its establishing itself. Peas are 

 gathered and sent to the market, generally 



NATURALIST. 17 



to be eaten as a green vegetable, and as the 

 larva leaves the pod to change to a chrysalis 

 in June or July, it might readily enough 

 reach maturity ; but as the female appears 

 to deposit her eggs on the plant, where they 

 remain till spring before they hatch, they 

 would inevitably perish when the field is 

 ploughed up for the next crop, or the 

 withered haulms removed from the garden. 

 Nevertheless, among the other leguminous 

 plants, on which it is said to feed, there 

 might be some British species that is sufi&- 

 ciently common to enable the butterfly to 

 gain a footing on our shores. Newman 

 speaks of the species as one that has followed 

 the introduction of agriculture all over the 

 globe. His authority for the statement, he 

 gives as the series of examples in the col- 

 lection of the British Museum. Kirby, on 

 the contrary, in his catalogue of Diurnal 

 Lepidoptera, gives Southern Europe, South- 

 ern Asia and Africa as the extent of its 

 range. He enlarges on the point in his 

 European Butterflies and Moths, where he 

 says " It is found everywhere in Europe, 

 south of the Alps, and all over Africa, West- 

 ern Asia, and the East Indies. On the 

 other hand it is scarcely ever found north 

 of the Alps, except in France ; though it 

 occasionally extends its range as far as the 

 Channel Islands, and has even been met 

 with once or twice on the south coast of 

 England." Its range would therefore 

 appear to be to the south of N. Lat. 35, ex- 

 cept where, westward of the Alps, it reaches 

 N. Lat. 53, or thereabouts. If this be cor- 

 rect its natural range would seem tq be 

 limited further to the south than our own 

 south coasts, and those examples that reach 

 shores to be mere wanderers from home, at 

 times when fine weather or favouring winds 

 have tempted them to stray. The want of 

 any proper understanding as to what is a 

 British species, has made collectors who 

 obtain an odd example of such an insect, 

 insist that the species must be British, if the 



