A TRAMP ACROSS CORSICA. 145 



The following morning we decided to take the coach all the way to 

 Ajaccio, but on arriving at Sta. Maria Sichc, discovered that the places 

 were all taken from there onwards by a party of officers ; they had 

 also hired all that the country could produce in the way of traps, carts, 

 and horses, so we were compelled to make the best of our way on foot 

 to Ajaccio. Twenty-two miles is quite enough for an afternoon's 

 walk, especially when one starts very late, and two very weary people 

 at last arrived in Ajaccio to an all too late dinner, after having been 

 obliged to waste a whole hour with a couple of French gendarmes, who 

 arrested us on suspicion because my young companion is a hater of 

 head-gear, and I was bearing a box of butterflies around my neck and 

 had a camera with me, clearly proving to these Sherlock Holmes that 

 my bright-faced English companion was an escaped prisoner, and that 

 I was a government spy ! While discussing things with these gallant 

 gentlemen, I was fortunate enough to net a Poaellia sao var. therapne, 

 which rather consoled me for the waste of time and temper. Pyraiiiein 

 carthii was abundant all along the dusty road, and there was an 

 occasional Vanesaa io, but not a sign of A(/lais var. ichnusa did I see in 

 any form or shape, though, and for the first time, I saw very many of 

 the dark-coloured Corsican nettles by the roadside. For the first time 

 on our walk we came across a little tract of country which seemed to 

 have undergone some rough attempts at cultivation, and I presume that 

 that is why nettles were plentiful. 



Parar(ie var. ti<ielius was here going over, not more than one in four 

 of those that I picked up was worth keeping. Its flight, so far as I 

 could judge, is a trifle less jerky than that of typical P. wefiaera, but 

 quite jerky enough to make it an easy thing to lose in the maquis. 

 Fortunately, from an entomologist's point of view it has a particular 

 aft'ection for the roadsides and the bare spots in the unending maquis. 

 It very rarely settles on flowers or shrubs but squats down on the bare 

 spots, doubtless winning a colour protection. Its ground colour 

 varies very little, I have only one example with hindwings slightlj' 

 paler, a mild form of albinism. The 5 s are rather larger than the J s, 

 the difference however is slight, out of 160 butterflies the largest ? is 

 20mm. in the expanse of the forewing, and the smallest <? 17mm. 

 The eyespots on the hindwings vary in number, I have examples with 

 one, two, three, four, five, and six spots, a large majority of them 

 however have four spots. The spots on the upper wings vary in a very 

 interesting way which is worth giving in detail. Almost every eyespot 

 is white pupilled. Out of 34 $ s 16 have one spot above the large 

 single apical one, four have one spot above a double-pupilled apical 

 one, four have one spot above and a second below this double-pupilled 

 one, two butterflies have two eyespots above the single and two above 

 the double-pupilled apical spot, three have one above and one below the 

 single-spotted apical, two have a single-pupilled and one a double- 

 pupilled apical with two spots above and one below. The J s vary 

 still more, perhaps only because I took more of them. Out of 126 

 butterflies 90 have apical spots with one, 82 with two, and four with 

 three pupils. Of the former, 74 have only one eyespot above, 12 have 

 two, three have two above and one below, and one has none either 

 above or below. Of the two-pupilled 18 have one spot above, six have 

 none, four have two above and four one above and one below. Of the 

 three-pupilled, three have one additional spot above and one below. It is 



