THE PURPLE EMPEROR 
1S1 
is often chosen by different individuals throughout a season, 
as many different specimens have been captured off the same 
branch day after day. Many years ago I saw as many as 
five specimens at the time fighting in the air above a large 
Oak in a Suffolk wood. In the same wood, a few years prior 
to this, a local collector told me he one day captured eighteen 
A. iris off a Mountain Ash tree (Pyrus aucuparia) ; therefore 
other trees besides the Oak are sometimes selected. I have 
also seen A. iris over the top of Black Poplar and very tall 
Birch trees. 
The female generally haunts the lower woodland growth, 
but occasionally frequents the higher trees also, and usually 
she will be found in closer proximity to the Sallow bushes. 
In Chattenden Woods, Kent, where formerly the Purple 
Emperor was abundant, the females commonly resorted to 
the highest ground, on the brow of a hill, where there were 
a few Oak trees ; these proved the favourite resort year after 
year for these butterflies. The females used to fly direct to 
the hill-top, although their breeding ground was in the valley 
several hundred yards distant. I have seen them pairing, 
and captured freshly-emerged specimens on the hill 
summit. 
In this particular wood no fewer than ninety-seven of these 
beautiful butterflies were captured in a few days by a dealer 
and his companion. They were taken as they swooped down 
from the trees to feed upon putrid flesh hung upon one of the 
lower branches of an Oak. It is not surprising that the Purple 
Emperor rapidly became scarcer in that particular spot owing 
to. this destruction carried on by these two men year after 
year. The butterfly finally disappeared altogether (in 1887) 
from that famous locality. 
It is owing to this butterfly's taste for decaying animal 
matter to feed upon that collectors have taken advantage of 
hanging up such bait in the haunts of this insect. It has 
often been seen feasting on the putrid remains of animals 
hung up by the gamekeeper in his " museum/’ usually some 
railing or shed in a wood. Although it is a general idea that 
only the male has this depraved taste, such is not always 
the case. I have captured a female that fancied a decaying 
rabbit. A. iris also resorts to any moisture on the ground 
