86 The Field Naturalisfs Quarterly May 



the well-known wings expand upon the last great golden daisy 

 (Doronicum) at perhaps 8000 feet ; in the dip of the pass, 

 where the snow lies thickest, at 10,000 feet, I have been 

 forestalled by the butterfly of the lowly nettle. 



The numerous dead insects lying on the snow-covered 

 slopes which are not indigenous to these altitudes have 

 always been more or less of a mystery to me. What 

 prompts the migration in a species not otherwise given 

 to roaming ? What is the cause of their untimely end ? 

 Sometimes, undoubtedly, the cold has proved too much 

 for the wanderer. I remember picking up two or three 

 frozen specimens of Colias phicomone — alpine first cousin to 

 our Clouded Yellow — with a yellow-green-winged male and 

 a pure primrose-white female. It was on a pass which leads 

 from the Oetzthal to a valley above Meran, in the Austrian 

 Tyrol. I do not know how long the insects had lain there, 

 — I was on the ice at about six in the morning, — but one 

 that I put into a box showed signs of vitality on exposure 

 to the sun, and had recovered enough to flutter its wings 

 when I left it behind below the snow upon the other side. 

 Other dismembered or broken insects found on the ice I 

 believe to have been brought there by birds, or at anyrate 

 attacked in their flight or when in a semi-torpid condition. 

 The ravens, crows, and the little snow-bunting, which haunt 

 the mountain-side, prey, no doubt, upon the insects of these 

 lofty regions. Where the snow does not lie at all I have 

 come across birds, insects, and flies as high as 12,000 

 feet on the Besso at Zinal, for instance, and I could not 

 believe that the crows were attracted thither, as the guide 

 declared, simply on the off-chance of crumbs and scraps 

 of meat from our knapsacks. 



But what induces lowland insects to make these ascents 

 still baffles my comprehension. Ordinarily the female flies 

 in search of the food-plant whereon to deposit her eggs, and 

 the male seeks the companionship of his lady, or — I regret 

 to add it — the favoured localities where honeyed flowers 

 provide unlimited potations. For it is a well-known fact 

 that, whereas the more sober-clad female in most species 

 is a diligent, hard-working sort of body, the male is a 

 notorious patron of strong liquors and other far less refined 



