130 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. Similar experiences are recorded in the Entomologist and Entomologists' Record for October. Records are given from Bexley and Strood (Kent), Reigate, Chiselhurst, and Ilford. The Rev. Gilbert H. Raynor writes:— " I saw at least fifty specimens of this beautiful insect disporting themselves on the flowers of Sedum spectabile in the garden of Woodham Mortimer Place, Essex, this morning (September 21st). The Sedum is planted in a row some thirty yards long, to form the border of a flower-bed. Here and there, among the Cardui flashed out the vivid scarlet of Vanessa atalanta, and there were simply hundreds of humble-bees and hive-bees, not to mention that common autumn imitator of the latter, Eristalis tenax. Truly a wonderful and magnifi- cent sight, and long to be remembered." The most probable explanation of this abundance of the butterfly is that, like other species occasionally (e.g. Pieris brassicae) it is a visitor, voluntary or involuntarily, from the Continent1. A very qualified observer in Essex, Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., F.L.S., writing from Dovercourt on September 23rd to the Morning Post, very pertinently remarks:— " The strong south-easterly winds which have been blowing continuously on this coast for the past four days have brought on immense number of the Painted Lady butterfly (Cynthia cardui) across the North Sea. Two days ago not one was to be seen, but on Tuesday last, notwithstanding that there has been scarcely any sun, they are in hundreds everywhere. It is a large bright-coloured butterfly, as I daresay many of your readers know, and not one to be easily overlooked. A few are generally seen every year at this time, and after a hot dry summer they are often abundant, so it is strange they should be so plentiful after the wretched weather that has prevailed during the past season. These are not newly-hatched butterflies, as many of them are weatherbeaten, nor are they likely to be immigrants, for immigration, as a rule, only takes place after a long continuence of hot weather. They are only wanderers blown across, whether they wished it or not. The common Gamma moth (Plusia gamma), of which only a few were to be seen a day or two ago, was also swarming on Tuesday— another case of enforced immigration." And lastly, from Whitby, Yorkshire, Mr. W. L. G. Bennett writes:— " It may interest Mr. Mathew to know that the Vanessa cardui is very plentiful at and near Whitby, which seems to favour his supposition that they have been blown over the North Sea. There have been this summer from the 1 Coleman, in his British Butterflies, records an extraordinary flight of the small white butterfly (Pieris taper) crossing the Channel from France to England. "Such was the density and extent of the cloud formed by the living mass that it completely obscured the sun from the people on board our Continental steamers on their passage, for many hundreds of yards, while the insects strewed the decks in all directions. The flight reached England about noon, and dispersed themselves inland and along the shore, darkening the air as they went. During the sea-passage of the butterflies the weather was calm and sunny, with scarce a putt of wind stirring, but an hour or so after they reached terra firma it came on to blow great guns from the S.W., the direction whence the insects came." A great immigration of Picris brassicae on to the Essex coast, observed by Mr. F. Kerry, is recorded in the Essex Naturalist, vol. vi., p. 205.