232 THE entomologist's record. 



unclaimed land covered with aromatic plants and shrubs of many 

 species. This coast waste is my principal hunting-ground, and on it I 

 have taken the bulk of the species referred to in the following notes, 

 though, at times, when the fierce sun has burnt up the flowers and 

 herbage of the wild I have been glad enough to make friends with 

 the owners of gardens and seek my quarry amongst their flowers. 

 Here let me say that, personally, I have found the natives of the south 

 quite harmless, inoffensive folk with whom it is quite easy to get on ; 

 and I have made it my business to establish friendly relations with 

 all the goatherds and muleteers whose work has brought them frequently 

 into my hunting-grounds. This is an easy matter, for your southern 

 Italian would almost sell his soul for tobacco ; and the judicious 

 distribution of a few cheap English cigarettes (purchased for the 

 purpose before leaving England), will generally secure for you the 

 good-will of all the contadini in the neighbourhood. If you also add 

 to your entomological outfit a few cheap biscuits wherewith to propitiate 

 the canine belongings of the aforesaid goatherds, you may wander at 

 will over the Brindisine country-side without fear of difficulty or 

 molestation, provided always you do not act rashly. Above all things 

 one should remember never to strike a Southern Italian whatever the 

 provocation. Personal violence is hotly resented ; and I heard of one 

 case where a box on the ear administered to a troublesome boy — who 

 richly deserved what he got — very nearly had a tragic result, and had it 

 not been that a boat was at hand in which the boy's chastiser made 

 good his escape in the nick of time, he would undoubtedly have met 

 his death at the hands of a band of infuriated peasants armed with 

 scythes and mattocks. And there is also an unwritten law as to dogs. 

 If these rush at you and make an unfriendly demonstration, you are 

 free to act as the peasant would act, but you must do no more. The 

 peasant would pick up as big a stone as he could find, and if the dog 

 waited for him to regain the upright position the stone would be used 

 as a missile — but the dog rarely waits for the stone. Most of them 

 have learnt in early days that Brindisine peasants are uncommonly 

 good shots, and Brindisine stones painfully hard, and they regard further 

 demonstration of these ascertained facts as superfluous and unpleasant. 

 If no stone is handy the mere pretence of picking one up will usually 

 suffice. 



It may be well to mention that a good working knowledge of Italian 

 is necessary to a wanderer in Southern Italy. The peasants understand 

 nothing else ; while even in the towns it is rare to find a person — 

 outside the Hotels and Consulates — who understands French. English 

 and German are almost unknown tongues. 



To judge from the surprise and curiosity evinced when I first took 

 my walks abroad in this neighbourhood armed with a butterfly net an 

 entomologist had never before been seen by the peasant folk. I well 

 remember the little gathering of contadini who watched me from a 

 respectful distance with absolute bewilderment stamped on their faces. 

 " Ma, che fa qua ?" asked two or three simultaneously of a grizzled 

 old veteran, the doyen of the group. "Non so" replied the oracle, "^ 

 inglese ! " "What further explanation could be required ? Without 

 further preliminaries I will now pass on to the enumeration of the 

 species of lepidoptera with which I have met. 



Papilio machaon is of frequent occurrence from April to October 



