Moths in a Mine 
It is many years since I first made the acquaintance 
of what the miners called the “ butterflies” in the pit. 
When I first heard their story, I took it with the pro- 
verbial grain of salt; but on being assured that the 
story was true, curiosity got the better of discretion, 
and, after some pourparlers, it was arranged that I 
should go down the mine on a Sunday morning and 
see the ‘butterflies’ myself. My guide was the 
“pony boy,” whose duty it was to attend and feed 
the ponies on Sundays. We met near the pit-head on 
a lovely morning in March, A friend accompanied us, 
so we were a party of three. The engine-keeper sup- 
plied us with lamps—ordinary colliers’ naked lights—. 
for it was an ironstone mine free from gas. Our quest 
of the “butterflies,” one could see, tickled the old 
engine-keeper ; perhaps I imagined a twinkle in his 
eye that suggested a nice joke at somebody’s expense. 
In due time we were lowered into the mine and con- 
ducted to the stables, which in mines are practically 
caves cut into the solid rock. I was told that the 
“butterflies” were attracted by the miners’ lights ; and 
they were there sure enough—not butterflies, which, of 
‘course, I did not expect to find, but moths fluttering 
along the “roof,” which was but a few inches above 
our heads. We did not need to use a net, and in a 
minute a specimen was in a box; it proved to bea fine, 
normally-developed specimen of the Hay Moth (C. 
guadripunctata—Plate VIII., Fig. 10). There were 
plenty of the moths, and, from what I could learn, they 
were to be found in the mine nearly all the year round, 
C.B.M. 25 | 4. 
