THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



105 



briefly the coast line South The country 

 and fauna is totally different, and is par- 

 ticularly rich and interesting to the 

 naturalist. 



For my purpose it will be better to take 

 say two months, i.e , July and August, 

 rather than, as in the former communication, 

 a day's outing simply, as for the last six 

 years I have spent five or six weeks annually 

 at Deal, but always in July and August, so 

 that I can only speak of the Lepidoptera 

 to be found during that period. 



We will start say from Deal Castle, pass- 

 ing through Walmer, keeping the road till 

 we reach Walmer Castle, with the well- 

 known " Downs " full in view, it is always an 

 interesting walk; but as we have a hard 

 day's walk set before us if we mean to 

 collect to St. Margaret's and back, it is 

 well to reserve our strength a bit, rather 

 than expend it by searching the shingle. A 

 coleopterist might, and possibly would, find 

 something to repay his labours on the rough 

 and wide belt of shingle which he passes 

 ere he reaches Walmer Castle ; but for my- 

 self I only commence working from beyond 

 that point. From Walmer Castle to the 

 little village of Kingsdown, you find plenty 

 to do. The road passes along the bottom 

 of a tolerably steep, but grassy and well- 

 flowered cliff or bank, and you at once see 

 by its flora that you are fast getting into 

 the chalk. Many very beautiful and in- 

 teresting plants are here to be found, and 

 naturally insect life too is abundant. This 

 warm and sheltered bank is alive with 

 butterflies. In August, 1877, when I first 

 visited this spot Colias edusa flew here by 

 hundreds ; A^^ge galathecu is in the greatest 

 profusion, so too is L. corydon, L. alsus 

 (wasted now), and L adonis sparingly. The 

 genus Vamessa is in great force. Aspilates 

 gilvariay A. citraria, E hvpunctaria and 



,j M. galiata swarm, and the grey form of 

 G obscuraria is by means rare. L. filipen- 



, dulc^y of course, abounds, and on the heads 



of the " Knob-stick " {Centaur ecu scdbiosa)^ 

 in the evening, the local E ochroleuca is 

 fairly common. Spilodes pdlealis occurs 

 sparingly, and Sticticalis also, but not com- 

 monly. On this bank I have taken both 

 H. armigera and peltigera, flying in the 

 hottest sunshine, and also captured them 

 at night with the aid of light. You may 

 always spend two or three hours working 

 this bank or cliff, which is about a mile 

 long, and you then reach Kingsdown. But 

 before we pass through the little village, it is 

 worth while walking out on to the broad 

 belt of shingle, to see the very beautiful Sea- 

 pea or Vetch {LatTiyrus maHtimus,) which 

 here grows in some plenty ; it is by no 

 means a common plant, and here appears 

 restricted to the beach near to Kingsdown, 

 on the Walmer side. Retrace your steps, go 

 through the village, keeping the seaside 

 road on your left, you will have the broad 

 belt of shingle, and to your right a high 

 chalk cliff, at the base of which is a 

 strip of grassy undercliff. Directly you open 

 on to this you have a splendid piece of 

 hunting ground. Here I met with some 

 of my rarest captures, armigera, peltigera, 

 and L. exigua. My first capture of the latter 

 rarity was in the hot sunshine, possibly it 

 had been disturbed ; I also took another at 

 the same place, at night, working with a lamp. 

 Here I made my first and only capture of 

 Sterrha sacralgia. On the same spot also 

 I first had the delight of taking that lovely 

 gem Margarodes tmionalis, which I captured 

 by light whilst it was sipping the nectar of 

 Hemp-agrimony ; I took a second specimen 

 a few nights later, off" the same clump of 

 flowers. Here, too, I captured my second 

 example of that very rare Pyrale, Mecyna 

 polygonalis, also oii Eupatorium cannabimiini. 

 My first specimen I found some ten days 

 before, on Deal Sandhills, on rush flowers, 

 the two spots five miles apart, and most dis- 

 similar in character. These are a few of my 

 best captures here, and all between Kings- 



