has a strong suspicion that beneath the pill-boxes in your coat-pocket you have a gin for a hare. I confess it is with no pleasant feeling that I see "Coombe Wood" in the pages of Haworth and Stephens, as the locality of many insects, still rare or not to be found elsewhere, although so many other places for collecting have been frequented since the time of those authors; and now I cannot look at the place from any side, but a notice that "Trespassers will be prosecuted" is thrust before me.

It may be necessary to impose some restraint upon general admission to woods, but surely there is no occasion for the owners to be so penurious of their acres to all. As an exception, it gives me great pleasure to mention Robert Harvey, Esq., the owner of Black Park, Bucks, a gentleman to whom the thanks of entomologists are due for the liberality with which, upon application, he grants permission to frequent his fine woods.

But, proceeding upon the supposition that you have arrived at a wood, I may say, before you enter it, that the outside is, in some respects, better than the inside. Many insects are to be found there by beating and sweeping, that, if they live at all within the cover, cannot be reached. It is only recently that a moth, new to Britain, Lithocolletis Bremiella, was discovered in the larva state, feeding in the leaves of Vicia sepium, growing at the margin of a wood near Bexley, Kent, and we are informed by the first finders of the species in Germany that it is only when the food-plant grows at the edges of woods that these larvæ are found on it. The next best places are the paths through the wood, not narrow ones through the thick bushes, but those that are broad and

open. It is in such places that you see the butterflies frequenting woods; such as Nemeobius Lucina, or Duke of Burgundy, skipping merrily over the top of the underwood in May; Argynnis Paphia, strong of wing, floating along before you in all the pride of beauty, stopping for a moment to refresh itself with a sip of honey in the cup of a brambleflower, and then going off again like an arrow; or Limenitis Sybilla, most gracefully gliding down before you, like a ray of light descending through the overhanging branches. Every one who has seen "the White Admiral" (as the old collectors called L. Sybilla) fly will willingly testify to the truth of Haworth's remark, that "the graceful elegance displayed by this charming species when sailing on the wing is greater perhaps than can be found in any other we have in Britain." Haworth adds, "There was an old Aurelian of London so highly delighted at the inimitable flight of Camilla (Sybilla), that long after he was unable to pursue her he used to go to the woods, and sit down on a stile, for the sole purpose of feasting his eyes with her fascinating evolutions."* Black Park is now the nearest locality to London for this species : the larva feeds on honeysuckle. Another of our beautiful butterflies, Apatura Iris, is only seen in woods, flying, in July, with great rapidity, during the heat of the day, round the tops of the tallest oaks. It is a species not found near London, but is not rare in woods near Colchester, where I once caught some specimens with great difficulty. Almost the only chance of getting them is about three o'clock in the afternoon, when their flight becomes lower: I put my

*Lepidoptera Britannica,' p. 30.

S

net over one that alighted on the damp earth just before me. The larva feeds on sallows: it is of a fine light green colour, and has two horns projecting from the segment behind the head: it is very fearless, and will eat very readily a leaf held to it. Vanessa Antiopa, or Camberwell Beauty, is another elegant creature, that pays us a visit now and then, many years intervening between its appearances. It is seen in and about woods in August, and, after hybernation, comes out again in the spring. The larva is said to feed on sallow and birch. The last time it was abundant was in the year 1846, when it appeared in many places. In the same year also some other rarities visited us: I remember especially that locusts, Argynnis Lathonia, Deilephila lineata, Charocampa Celerio and Sphinx Convolvuli are recorded to have been captured in various localities. The subject of the simultaneous appearance of a species in several places after an absence of some years, and then the sudden disappearance, is very curious, and has never received a satisfactory explanation.

We have five species of butterflies of the genus Thecla in Britain, all of which frequent woods. T. Quercus abounds on oak trees in July: you may see the females walking about the leaves, sunning themselves; while the males are fluttering in attendance, or pertinaciously holding a tournament in honour of their lady-loves: in these pugnacious encounters they maul each other severely, and you can hardly capture a male whose wings are free from scratches and tears. The larvæ feed on the oak; queer onisciform things they are. T. Betula is found on oak trees in August, but

is not nearly so common as the last species: the larvæ feed on blackthorn. T. Rubi occurs in May, generally flying about birch bushes: the larva feeds on brambles. The other two species, T. W-album and T. Pruni, do not occur near London, but they are not rare in the woods of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire: I am not acquainted with their habits.

In the months of May and June the ground, that has been about two years cleared of the underwood, is covered with Ajuga reptans in full bloom, round which, in the South of England, Argynnis Euphrosyne flies in profusion, accompanied frequently by the "clear-wings," Sesia Fuciformis and S. Bombyliformis, which at first sight look like humble-bees; but they are still more rapid in their It is very pleasant to see them, and at the

movements. same time

"the bees bustling

Down in the blue-bells,"

which grow intermixed with the Ajuga. By the way, how exquisitely adapted is this alliterative phrase of Keats to the subject: it seems to bring the very buzz of the bees to your ears; aye, and to carry music and beauty further, too,-into your heart.

In April the sallows come into bloom. In the day-time they are very attractive to bees, Bombi, Andrenæ, &c., and a few beetles also. At and after dusk the flowers are the resort of several species of moths (Noctuina), some of which have hybernated, and others have just left their pupa state. It is now some fifteen years since the collectors first took moths in

this way, that were likely long to have remained deficient in the collections but for the discovery, by Mr. H. Doubleday, of the attractive powers of the sallow blossoms. 1 believe it

was the same gentleman who found out, about the same time, that a mixture of sugar and beer, mixed to a consistence somewhat thinner than treacle, is a most attractive bait to all the Noctuina. The revolution wrought in our collections, and our knowledge of species since its use, is wonderful. Species that used to be so rare that it seemed hopeless to think of possessing them, and others not then known at all, have become so plentiful by the use of sugar in different localities that they are a drug in the hands of collectors and dealers. It is more than probable that new species yet remain to be discovered in northern and unfrequented districts.

The mixture is taken to the woods, and put upon the trunks of the trees, in patches or stripes, just at dusk. Before it is dark some moths arrive, and a succession of comers continues all night through, until the first dawn of day warns the revellers to depart. The collector goes, soon after dark, with a bull's-eye lantern, a ring-net, and a lot of large pillboxes. He turns his light full on the wetted place, at the same time placing his net underneath it, in order to catch any moth that may fall. Some species are very fond of this trick; others sit very unconcerned; and others, again, fly off at the first glance of the bull's-eye. Once in the net a moth is easily transferred to a pill-box, where it will remain quiet until the next morning. There are some sorts, however, that will not put up with solitary confinement so easily, and fret themselves, that is, their plumage; so it is better to pin and