96 THE entomologist's record. 



localities I ever visited abroad — a wide, cultivated valley sloping 

 gradually from walls of fiery rock, the famous Dolomites, treeless and 

 without snow for the most part, and where fir-woods exist almost entirely 

 without water, and destitute of flowering plants in a remarkable 

 degree. It was really irritating to tramp the long hills all day and 

 catch next to nothing, though Hies of the family TahaiuiH would so 

 persistently attack my companion that their depredations afforded 

 us considerable excitement. Curiously enough, Polinnnmatus pheretes 

 was again the ordinary blue, and a very dark form of Paranie 

 maera occurred somewhat plentifully at intervals — long intervals. 

 Above the Tre Croce, a sort of nek between Cortina and Hchluder- 

 bach, and dignified by the name of Passo, the steeper flank of 

 the Monte Cristallo falls away into a green valley clothed with 

 wood and moor. At this particular spot Eirbia jihartf made amends for 

 the barrenness of the fauna, and, appearing in some numbers, helped to 

 swell our meagre bag. A small race of Melitaea (lidijnia, -with some- 

 what clay-coloured forewings, represented the fritillaries, while at, 

 or near, this wood jNIr. Jones secured a single specimen of Li/racna 

 aiiianda. A solitary I'UircDwssd atitidfut, a few SijrichthKs, Papilio 

 hiachaoii and Liiiiciiitis c((uiilla, with I'lrebia var. pitho, and the 

 too ubiquitous < '<ii'ii(t)t!/iiij>lia satj/rion in-act'icaWy exhausts our list. But 

 if Cortina lacked interest for me entomologically it has much to recom- 

 mend it in other respects. The Dolomite is indeed a thing of beauty 

 and a joy for ever, and the lovely eft'ects of sunrise and sunset on these 

 strange, jagged, and broken pinnacles once seen can never be for- 

 gotten. The " Aquila Nera," too, is an exceedingly comfortable hotel 

 — moderate, clean, and with an excellent cuisine. So Cortina has its 

 atti'actions, but they are to be recorded rather in the sketch-book and 

 by the camera than in the bug-hunter's diary. Our next and last move 

 was a piece of sheer luck : the highest available village on the Drenner 

 railway is Brenner village, and after loitering in our Capua a few days 

 longer we turned our faces thither. A long morning drive through 

 glittering mountains, green pines, and glassy streams, brought us to 

 Toblach, with only Hrchia Uijca to mark the journey. But the 

 next day the fun began. We were marching down the pass from 

 Brenner northwards. Not ten yards from the hotel insects were 

 swarming, and the road carpeted with hundreds of Krchiidi, con- 

 spicuous among them Kirhia pluirte, K. iinuito, and J'., iiidniiipus. In 

 the meadows the larger fritillaries were flying in cheerful abundance 

 with ('alias hjialc and C /iJiinniunte, while it was not long before I 

 netted a wasted specimen of Jlroit/iis tJioir. We carefully worked the 

 side of the mountains that border the little green Brenner See, but we 

 could only take ancient examples of this pretty and local Argynnid, 

 and were evidently a fortnight or more (this was July 27th) too late. 

 By another fortunate accident we elected next day to walk up the 

 Postealpe, an isolated grassy promontory between higher ranges, 

 ending abruptly in a sheer drop of perhaps ;-300ft. to a valley below. 

 At first through fir woods, and then over slopes gay with the alpen- 

 rosen, then to the usual " betwixt-and-between " of mountain moor, 

 morass, and loose stones. Every zone had its particular insect, and 

 here for the first time I made the acquaintance of McUtcwa astcru'. 

 It is not easy to catch this little bee-like butterfly, with its semi-trans- 

 parent wings suggesting an affinity to .U. parthotie such as that dis- 



