1913.] 123 



the Moor iu cliarge in bad Spanish and worse Arabic for the rotten 

 figs we wanted. He would persist in understanding that we con- 

 demned his figs as rotten ones and resented the accusation very 

 strongly. The argument increased in force until the air was humming 

 with strong language, What would have happened next I do not 

 know, but fortunately at this juncture a resident English friend came 

 upon the scene, explained matters, and all ended happily. 



The Moors, although disliking Christians and Europeans generally, 

 are very fond of, and resj^ect, the English, and I have had very pleasant 

 experiences in Northern Marocco in company with my friends, Lieut. 

 Lovell and Seiior Lorenzo Baglietto. We failed altogether to make 

 the Moors understand the object of collecting insects ; they could not 

 see why a sane ])erson should go to all the trouble of catching 

 " Fartetose " (the phonetic spelling of the local Arabic for bu.tterflies) 

 which could not be made use of for eating purposes. 



Of the various methods of obtaining specimens of the imago, 

 such as netting on the wing, sugaring, beating herbage, examining 

 flowers, ivy-hunting, and collecting at light, my experience in this 

 region is that only the first and last-named hold out much chance of 

 success. Ivy is very luxuriant in some localities, producing most 

 promising-looking blooms, the very sight of which would, if such a 

 thing were possible, excite envy in the breast of any British moth ; but 

 here it has very little attraction for insects of any kind, either by day 

 or night. 1 have visited and examined it at all times, and except for 

 an occasional Agrotis saucia, Hb., A. segetmn, Schiff, or other common 

 Nocf'ux, have not seen anything on it worthy of note. Sugaring trees, 

 rocks, and growing shrubs at various times in the year, both at 

 Gribraltar and in the Cork Woods, has met with but little success. I 

 have only taken three specimens of Grammodes algira, L., one Catocala 

 elocata, E., in indifferent condition, a few Bryophila miiralis, and one 

 or two Gracilipalims ephialtes, Hb., by this method iu 2| years. The 

 cause of failure, I think, is not so much, that the sugar fails to attract, 

 but is due to the presence of vast numbers of ants, sometimes wood- 

 lice, with an occasional huge centipede or a lizard. The ants attack the 

 patches of sugar directly they are put on, and I think drive the well- 

 disposed moths away ; indeed, there would be no foothold near the 

 sugar except on the backs of these swarming pirates. We tried to 

 circumvent the ants by stretching lengths of strong fine twine between 

 the trees from which we suspended rags steeped in sugar. This was 

 pretty successful until the ants found their way up the trees and along 

 the branches and cord to the bait. 



L 2 



