174 THE EN'TOMOLOiiJST S RECORD. 



to the conclusion that, for a first trip, we could not do better than 

 follow in the footsteps of Messrs. Sheldon and Jones. 



We left England on May 20th, and travelled direct to Barcelona. 

 We broke the journey here for a few hours to make an expedition to 

 Tibidabo. It was a glorious day, and notwithstanding that our quarry 

 was not over-plentiful, the menjory of the hours spent on that lovely 

 hillside will not soon fade. The first hour revealed nothing more 

 exciting than an odd Faran/e uu'(jaera or two, a very worn C(ien<iiii/)iijiha 

 /iani})hili(s, a few hibernated Pyraiiieis cnrdiii, and a number of Pliniia 

 i/a;iniia ; but soon afterwards we had a vision of a fine I/ihiclidcs 

 podaliriun, shortly followed by an unmistakable Fa])ilio uiacliaon. 

 Matters improved when we got out on to the open hillside amongst 

 the scrub. Here we found that darkest of " burnets " Anthiocera 

 larandiilae in some numbers, a few Melananjia si/llius, mostly worn, 

 numbers of Celastrina arifioliis, and, to our delight, Melitaea aurinia 

 var. iberica. Of the latter, both sexes were in evidence in first-rate 

 condition. By dint of steady work each of us managed to pick up a 

 short series of excellent specimens. An odd specimen or two of 

 Glaucojisijclie (XuDiiadcs) cyllayns and I'lpituplielc jictsijiluie completed 

 our bag. So we descended to the valley, rolled our nets, and took our 

 places on the top of the electric car which was to take us back to 

 Barcelona. Hardly had we taken our seats when a big dark butterfiy 

 floated lazily over our heads, so low that had any one of us had a net 

 handy the insect must have been captured. As it was the butterfiy 

 pursued its leisurely way unmolested. It was C/uirares jasin>i ! 



On the following morning we left for the south. We broke the 

 journey for a few hours at Valencia — which does not strike one as being 

 of much interest as an entomological centre — then proceeded to Teruel, 

 where we stayed the night at the station restaurant and on the morrow 

 embarked in the crazy mule-diligence for Albarracin, where, after 

 many adventures, we arrived in the afternoon. We had arranged for 

 quarters at the Hospederia Narro, where our predecessors had stayed ; 

 and we can only say that, after the dark hints we had heard in London 

 about life in small country hotels in Spain, we were agreeably surprised 

 at the cleanliness and comfort which we found at Sefior Narro's 

 house. 



Mr. Sheldon's account of the Albarracin district is so complete and 

 admirable that no remarks on the subject from me are called for. His 

 notes, coupled with some additional hints and directions which were 

 kindly supplied to us by him and his companion, Mr. Jones, were of 

 the utmost use to us in our wanderings, and the success we met with 

 we owe in large measure to the help ungrudgingly given us by those 

 two gentlemen. Our hunting was done for the most part over the 

 ground mapped out by them, our principal locality being the sainfoin 

 fields some two or three kilometres belovv Albarracin and the gorges on 

 the left bank of the Guadalaviar. The sainfoin fields were not, however, so 

 productive at the time of our visit as they were in the previous year ; 

 but this was probably due to the fact that we were a fortnight later 

 and the flowers were long past their best. They were most attractive 

 on our first morning and steadily declined in their yield as the days 

 went by. The weather, too, was distinctly less favourable to us. 

 There were few days when there was unbroken sunshine ; and on 

 most mornings we set out under a cloudy sky, wondering if the 



