The Vanished Swallow-tail . A number of very beautiful illustrations
of butterflies were presented to Oxford not so long ago ; and it appears from evidence connected with them as-in other records that the swallow-tail butterfly was once common in Southern England. I asked a great entomologist this week how he accounted for their disappearance. His view was that the enemy was the sparrow which multiplies more or less in exact proportion with the multiplication of the -human - population. The caterpillar of the swallow-tail is singularly distinct ; and the sparrow, though not a subtle bird, has a very quick perception of the obvious. Recently a -great copper butterfly—a species that . had wholly disappeared—appeared on the South Coast, rather mysteriously. • This gorgeous species was not annihilated by any bird. It died out with, its host plant, which flourished especially on the undrained Fins of the Eastern Counties. A new attempt to restore it is being made on the banks of the Thames Others in East Anglia have already proved successful along with the planting of the great water-dock. It is, of course, possible that the specimen seen on the South Coast was a stray from Norfolk, though it may have crossed the. Channel
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