yl RED-LETTER DAY 
49 
naturalist’s life, often referred to, and always recalled with 
pleasure. Such a day has occurred to me more than once, and 
of one in particular 1 will now speak. 
It was many years ago, in the si.vties, that I was living at 
Usk, in Monmouthshire, a favourite resort for the disciples ot 
Isaac Walton, and a grand field for those of Gilbert White. 
While there 1 made the ac(]uaintance of a keen old fisherman, 
who had settled down near the river to engage in his favourite 
pursuit, after having amassed a comfortable income from success 
in business. To his fondness for the gentle art was added a 
love of entomology — another great recommendation in my eyes. 
No wonder, then, that we often met, and spent many happy 
days together. They say “ birds of a feather flock together,” 
and this certainly applies to entomologists — “ bug hunters,” as 
people irreverently used to call us. How much does a com- 
panion brighten up an e.vcursion to a distant spot in search of 
some particular insect we know to be just out, and which we 
had taken there before ; or when sugaring at night in the heart, 
it may be, of some lonely wood ! Then there is the comparing 
notes afterwards, and the exchanging so as to perfect the rows 
in the cabinet. Or perhaps some young enthusiast is taken 
under the old collector’s wing, and taught the tricks of the 
trade — when and where and how to put the sugar on the trees, 
the likely spots to dig for pupai, aye, and for larvae too, how 
to set up business, wdiat to look for, and what to expect, how 
to treat the capture when made, what flowers or plants to 
specially watch and search. 
It was one glorious afternoon in June that my fisher friend 
laid aside his rod and went for a ramble, gauze net in hand, 
with me to a spot rather more than a mile from the town of 
Usk, and between it and a village called IMonkswood. At first 
we caught but little : however on arriving at the sunny side of a 
v.'ood 1 took a fine specimen of the black-veined white butter- 
fly (Pici'is Cnificgi). At the time my companion was some little 
distance olT, but a shout soon told him what I had secured, and 
he was not long in coming to identify my capture ; but what 
was his surprise and delight to find that there were many more 
around, not one here and there, but by the dozen. How we 
did race and run! I a young fellow in splendid trim, just down 
from the ’Varsity, and from the tented fields of Cowley and 
Lords ; he much older and with portly waistcoat, such as I in 
all these years that since have passed have happily escaped. 
As we filled our boxes I could hear him crying out he could do 
no more, that an attack of apoplexy was fast supervening, and 
yet he persevered, as you may be sure did I. When we had 
taken enough and to spare, we sat down on a grassy bank to 
cool, and smoke the calumet of peace. 
But another treat was in store for us, this time of a different 
kind. At a short distance from where we were reclining there 
was an overhanging wood with perpendicular rocks and fine old 
