1902 ButteT-fly- Hunting in the Alps 89 



I have myself added to my store ; and although I have 

 collected in a dozen Swiss mountain localities, and native 

 collectors tell me it is common enough, I never found it 

 anywhere but at Zinal, so conclude that I must have 

 been in the other places during the " off season." 



Next to acllo I think Erehia glacialis the most charac- 

 teristic butterfly of the Alps. It is the highest flier of all 

 the Ringlets, and, in a way, as mysterious an insect as I 

 know. Where the grass ends, far above the tree zone, and 

 among the wild debris brought down by the avalanches of 

 years gone by and the perpetual action of water and frost 

 upon the rock, is the haunt of this beautiful insect. I 

 have taken it as high as 10,690 feet on the Sasseneire 

 above Evolena, on the glaciers themselves beneath the 

 Rossboden (10,500 feet) over Saas-im-Grund, and again 

 at Saas-Fee on the Langefliih (9345 feet). In July 1900 

 the dark variety named alecto swarmed at Trafoi round 

 the Edelweisshiitte on the way up the Ortler ; while the 

 ordinary form was equally plentiful at the top of the 

 Stelvio Pass, where the highest carriage-road in Europe 

 winds down in endless zigzags from Italy into the Austrian 

 Tyrol. Sombre are the wings, which in the aberration 

 called phito have lost all traces of the rich brown mahogany- 

 coloured bands and the ocellated spots within them ; but, 

 like all the Erebias of the Alps, the darkness reflects a splen- 

 did iridescence, suggestive of the sheen upon a pigeon's 

 breast. In glacialis the gleam is green to brown ; in 

 another Erebia, one of the largest of the tribe and the 

 most brilliant, — E. goante, — it is almost " peacock " blue, 

 like the wing-cases of some beetles. In yet a third, and 

 by far the commonest, — E. tyndanis, — we have the actual 

 reproduction of the black - green beauty of the cock's 

 feathers. The reflections, however, are not apparent on 

 the wings of our Erebia cassiope, though in some other 

 British butterflies they are present. For instance, the 

 wings of Colias edusa (the Clouded Yellow) are often suf- 

 fused with a deep rosy glow, though the glory disappears 

 with death ; and a similar and more lasting brilliancy 

 adorns the Purple Emperor (Apatttra iris), as well as his 

 Continental brother, Apatura ilia. 



If you refer to the text-books to find out something of the 



