BUTTERFLY HUNTING IN GREECE IN THE YEAR 1900. 31 



there is no sort or kind of objection raised when the passengers walk 

 along the footboards outside the carriages while the train is at full 

 speed, should they be disposed to do so. I did this once myself on the 

 little branch railway from Dhiakopto up to Kalavryta, when I found 

 my quarters in the small first-class compartment next the engine, a 

 trifle too warm in consequence of the hot smoke which was constantly 

 pouring into it. As I knew there was no stop till Zachlorou, and that 

 there were several long tunnels, I considered it just as well not to run 

 the risk of being suftbcated in one of them. With Marcus it was a 

 common practice also to get in after the train had well started. The 

 first time I saw him standing coolly on the platform, as we were slowly 

 steaming out of the station, I naturally thought to myself " Why, 

 that fool Marcus has been left behind." But he soon set my mind at 

 ease on this point, by shortly afterwards appearing at the window of 

 my carriage, to have a few minutes' friendly conversation during the 

 journey, a little habit of his to which I soon became quite accustomed. 

 I once asked him if he had carried on these practices during his trip 

 to England, to which he replied " Only once, and then I was told if 

 I ever did so again 1 should be fined." 



Having found the country round Tripolitza so dry and barren as to 

 be apparently utterly unproductive from an entomological point of 

 view, we were returning on the line of railway between that place and 

 Corinth, when the train suddenly stopped in the midst of the moun- 

 tains, nowhere near any evidences of what could possibly be mistaken 

 for a station, and IMarcus appeared to inform me that the cause for 

 this was "the grasshoppers." So many of them were there that to 

 proceed would be impossible, without running the risk of the engine 

 slipping off the rails. I looked out and saw that the ground was 

 covered with one moving mass of orthoptera. There was not a square 

 inch of earth or visible blade of grass that was not densely populated 

 with these creatures, but as I am a lepidopterist and not an orthop- 

 terist, I am unable to say to what species they belonged. Impromptu 

 brushes had to be made of the scrub and brush wood, and these Avere 

 placed in front of the engine, and by this means the line was swept 

 clear enough for the train to proceed in safety. 



The Greek butterflies that I was most anxious to obtain were Pieris 

 kri'fpcii, P. enjane, Eiirhloc (/nmeri (E. damone I knew must be over 

 long ago, as it only flies in the early spring), CoUas heldreichi (most 

 especially), Mdananjia larhsa, Chrysojilianits ottomamis, C. thetis, and 

 Satj/rus (jracca. All of these I succeeded in taking with the exception 

 of the two last-named species, both of which I should imagine to be 

 July insects, as I left Greece at the end of June without seeing any 

 specimen of them. 



Pieris kriiperi was common just outside Delphi in May, on a 

 southern slope of the mountain near some red rocks, about 100ft. above 

 the ruins, but the ground was difficult, and krhpcri is a rapid flyer ; 

 it was easier to take it in the partially dried up bed of a stream a short 

 distance from the village, on the left of the main road going towards 

 Arakhova, which was a favourite drinking fountain and place of rendez- 

 vous for all thirsty butterflies. The spring brood — var. rernalis — ^Avas 

 flying with the summer brood the year I was in Greece, though most 

 of the specimens of var. vemalis were worn, especially the females, 

 which was remarkable as they had probably emerged a week or ten 



