188a.] from a Naturalist's Point of View. 345 
out of 6000 acres of ground. The objedt, as I understand, 
is to afford pleasure and recreation to the greatest number 
of the people of London. 
I will venture to say that not the naturalists alone, to 
whatever class of society they may belong, but the toiling 
million of the East-end, — whom it most concerns, — would, 
if they could be polled on the question, vote almost in a 
mass for the free, wild forest, in preference to the formal 
park. It is therefore important that all draining and clearing 
operations should at once be stopped, and that money should 
not be spent in spoiling a place of pleasurable resort such as 
no European capital save Vienna has in its very outskirts. 
The value of Epping Forest to the naturalist is the greater 
because, in addition to its size, it presents regions quite 
distindt from each other, both in their vegetation and in 
their insedt inhabitants. The low swampy grounds at the 
Chingford end, and stretching on towards Woodford, differ 
totally in their productions from the centre of the Forest 
from High Beech, and yet again from the north-eastern ex- 
tremity which extends towards Epping. There are certain 
inserts which seem rarely to cross the road leading from 
Loughton to Epping. Typhceus vulgaris , e.g., is the com- 
monest coprophagous beetle on the right hand side of the 
road, especially on the high grounds abovethe “ Robin Hood.’* 
On the left hand side of the road it is replaced by species of 
Geotrupes, especially G. sylvaticus. In the region stretching 
from Sewardstone Green towards High Beech species of 
Onthophagus become much more abundant than in either of 
the former districts. Whoso wishes to study the habits of the 
tiger-beetle ( Cicindela campestris) must go the highest ridge of 
the forest at the north-eastern end, — a region full of gravel- 
pits. These are but a few desultory instances of the curious 
manner in which inseCt species are parcelled out within very 
narrow limits, and which can scarcely be studied except in 
ground which is left in a state of Nature. In this country 
there is little space which can be exempted from the three 
great devastating agencies — clearage, drainage, and culture. 
The more reason, surely, that a spot of land formally and 
specially reserved for the recreation of the public should be 
preserved from these modifying causes. There, at least, we 
may still hope to see the dense thicket a welcome cover for 
birds, and beneath which the delicate woodland flowers find 
a temperature often three or four degrees higher than prevails 
in the open fields ; the sheltered glade, fenced round from all 
the winds of heaven, where the butterflies flit about even on 
chilly days ; and even the occasional swamp and reedy pool, 
VOL. IV. (THIRD SERIES). 2 A 
