202 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
insect that apparently may be considered one of the "glories
of the past." It is as far back as 1881 since I last took the
larvae from Epping Forest, although I have been given to under-
stand that it was taken as late as 1895.
The Small Copper, Polyommatus phlaeas, may be found any-
where in small numbers. The 'blues' in the Forest are now
reduced to two species only. These are the Common Blue,
Lycaena icarus, which may be picked up here and there, and
the Holly Blue, L. argiolus. This species is one of the very few
butterflies of Epping Forest that appears to have maintained
its numbers during the last 50 years or so, and in fact, I feel
inclined to think that its numbers have increased rather than
otherwise.
In the last group of our butterflies, the 'Skippers,' I have
only met with three species, those being Syrichthus molva (in
abundance), Nisoniades tages (one only on May 25, 1920) and
Hesperia sylvanus (also in abundance). This completes a full
list of the butterflies taken or seen by me in the Forest. It is
only since 1914 that I have been able to make anything like a
complete list, but my occasional visits to the locality date back
to 1868, when a few of the observations were made.
It will be seen that the list is by no means a rich one ; there
is every reason to think that in Doubleday's time, judging from
his records, insect life in the Forest was far more abundant than
at the present day.
BOOK NOTICE.
The Geology of the Country near Ramsgate and Dover, by H. J. Osborne
White, 1928. (Geol. Surv. Memoir.)
This latest memoir of the Geological Survey covers a district containing
the towns of Westgate, Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Deal and Dover,
illustrated by the new one-inch colour-printed sheets, 274 and 290. This
district is now of considerable economic, as well as of residential, importance,
seeing that it includes part of the new Kent Coalfield, and it is therefore
important that the geological features should be re-examined.
It is gratifying to note that, after long seeming neglect of the home and
south-eastern counties, the officers of the Survey have of recent years-
been able to re-survey these (from an economic view-point) less important
counties, and bring our knowledge of their geology up-to-date.
The Memoir can be obtained from H.M. Stationery Office, Kingsway,
W.C.2., price 2s. 9d., and the one-inch maps from Messrs. E. Stanford,
Ltd., Long Acre, price 2s. 0d. each.