Appeals

A rare Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon britannicus) which ButterflY Conservation, a charity aimed at saving wild butterflies and their habitats, is protecting by purchasing Catland Fen, a 60-acre wetland area in Ant Valley, Norfolk, one of the insect's strongest habitats. Two centuries ago the Swallowtail butterfly could be found throughout the East Anglian Fens and in the Thames Valley and Estuary marshes: now it is restricted to the north Norfolk Broads.

Butterfly Conservation urgently needs to raise pounds 40,000 to complete the purchase of the wetland, part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an area of open water, reed, sedge and carr woodland. It is also the only known habitat of the Small Dotted Footman, a rare moth. The Swallowtail, which is bright yellow with black stripes and a red spot edged with blue, has an 80mm wing- span and 10mm tails on each wing. Swallowtails can be found nectaring on marsh thistle, ragged robin, marsh valerian and red campion. It is thought to be one of the largest, most colourful and most endangered of the 54 species of resident butterfly in this country. With the Large Blue and the Heath Fritillary butterflies, it is fully protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Butterfly Conservation, founded in 1968, aims to protect the diminishing numbers and varieties of wild native butterflies: during the last 150 years five species have become extinct - the Large Copper, Mazarine Blue, Blue-veined White, the Large Blue and Large Tortoiseshell. Two, the Large Blue and the Large Copper, have been re-introduced from a Continental sub-species. During the last 30 years there has been a 94- per-cent reduction in the numbers of High Brown Fritillary butterflies. For further information, contact: Butterfly Conservation, PO Box 222, Dedham, Colchester, Essex CO7 6EY, telephone 0206 322342.

Correction: The photograph featured in 'Appeals' (9 September) showed not Mornington Terrace, north London, but Mornington Terrace in Upper Duke Street, Liverpool, opposite the Anglican Cathedral. The terrace is in the Rodney Street Conservation Area. The London Conservation Area Conference, organised by the Georgian Group and mentioned last week, will cover information relevant to all conservation areas in the country.

A new publication, Townscape in Trouble: Conservation Areas, the Case for Change ( pounds 5.00), written by the English Historic Towns Forum, is available from: The English Historic Towns Forum, Huntingdon Centre, The Vineyards, The Paragon, Bath BA1 5NA.

The Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society, which is run entirely by volunteers, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a special Steam Festival finale this weekend. The society has restored as a working museum what began, in 1919, as a narrow- gauge railway linking local sand quarries in Bedfordshire. The track has been relaid and a large permanent collection of locomotives and wagons has been assembled. Today, 25 preserved engines will form a cavalcade; in the evening there will a 'steam glow' opportunity for photographers.

Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society, Page's Park Station, Billington Road, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire LU7 8TN, telephone 0525 373888.

The Cartoon Art Trust, an educational charity, will be staging its first exhibition on Tuesday 22 September at Lynton plc, Carriage Row, 163-203 Eversholt Street, London NW1. On display will be nearly 100 cartoons from the Allan Cuthbertson Collection, which is on permanent loan to the trust and includes works by Isaac and George Cruikshank, Thomas Rowlandson, Edward Lear, Max Beerbohm and Heath Robinson. The Cartoon Art Trust, which has its own collection of 140 cartoons, has so far raised pounds 200,000 to establish a permanent home for a National Museum of Cartoon Art; it needs to raise over pounds 1m. The exhibition will be open each week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons only until Wednesday 23 December.

The Cartoon Art Trust, 156 Munster Road, London SW6 5RA, telephone 071-371 1372.

(Photograph omitted)