82 THE entomologist's record. 



adonis, or hellaryus, or thetis, or whatever new flag that harassed insect 

 may be flying. 



The 14th was spent in moving on to Nice, and a visit next day to 

 the Vallon Obscur once more revealed a single H, sidaf. The place 

 struck me as combining all possible objections in a collecting ground ; 

 it is too populous, too shut in and damp, and except at the bottom of the 

 gorge, fenced in and unworkable, and lastly, very little to be seen. 

 The Vallon des Fleurs was equally free from flowers and butterflies, 

 and a walk up the stony Montboron resulted in Melananiia si/lUus 

 alone. 



On the 19th, braving the clouds which lay low on the horizon over 

 the Maritime Alps, we left a peifect day at Nice, and trained up to 

 La Vesubie for the day. Half-way up we ran under the clouds and a 

 violent thunderstorm burst upon us just as we arrived, and lasted until 

 the arrival of our returning train ; half-way down, we cleared the- 

 clouds, and found Nice in perfect sunshine, and were told it had been 

 so all day. The " Cote d'Azur " is a real thing. Two days later we 

 agam made the attempt and were rewarded by a fine day. A walk of 

 five miles to La Mescla was more remarkable for romantic scenery than 

 for Lepidoptera. The Gorge was narrow, only space enough at the 

 bottom for the torrent, the rail, and our road : the sides, of smooth 

 slaty rock, rose in some places over a thousand feet, sometimes sheer, 

 at others overhanging the road, which tunnelled through it. Melitaaa 

 deiune and L. alcijihron var. t/orditis were out, and Pohiiionia I'ljea was- 

 not uncommon on the rock face. On the 28th we took the mountain 

 tram up to St. Martin Vesubie. This was of course very early for an 

 altitude of 3,000 feet, and the thermometer dropped from 74° at Nice 

 to 45° degrees in the bedroom, but I wished to begin the season over 

 again, and compare types of the Alpes Maritimes with insects taken at 

 Aix and Pont du Gard, also I did not wish to be at Digne until about 

 June 20th, and was well content to mark time in anew country. The 

 weather or climate was Swiss at its worst ; bright sun in the early 

 morning, then a gathering cloud on the head of an evil neighbouring 

 peak (Malvoisin it should have been named), that overspread the whole 

 sky and wiped out the whole of every noon and afternoon for 

 collecting, then a clearance, and bright suri from 5 to 7 p.m. More 

 vexatious weather for a collector could not well be imagined. We 

 arrived in sleet, and after two days tried a morning on the Boreon 

 road. Few^ specimens were about, though there was a fair number of 

 species, a dark and large form of HiDiiicia pldaeas, Erehia erias, Poly- 

 uiiniiadis seiiiiaryus, by far the commonest blue, (t. ci/llanis, C. inininius,. 

 and a number of Hesj>eiidae of the malvae group, which always remind 

 me of the dictum of that authority who says, " the more elucidation 

 of this genus, the greater the darkness," also a welcome reminder of 

 the Khone Valley in the shape of Anthncharia sinijddnia. I think the- 

 latter, ab. jiacidior, must have been unusually common in 1913, as I 

 came upon a cleared space in a fir wood where it was abundant, indeed 

 the only white, and almost the only species : it ranged from flaridior, 

 with the yellow predominating on the under side, to a form in which 

 the lower wings were almost entirely covered with dark green, 

 June 1st was a fairly good morning above Venanson, for the first time 

 groups of " blues " appealed on the road, A'ln'ades thctis {adonis), G^ 

 cyllarni;, and C uiinimus, also Melitaea auiinia var. /inirincialis, and 



