CONTRIBT'TTONS TO THR FAt'N'A OF SPAIN : BR.TAR. lo 



without necessarily visiting the same ground. As well as the natural 

 wish for some variety, we felt that Spain was a large country and 

 could afford us some good sport in many possible directions. We 

 wanted the fine weather we had enjoyed on the Albarracin Sierra, fine 

 without being too hot, this pointed to the great central plateau rather 

 than the north and west, as affording moist Atlantic weather, or the 

 south and east as too hot. It also suggested that high ground was 

 desirable, both as a matter of climate and as affording more hopeful 

 collecting ground. La Granja would have suited as well, except that 

 we thought we should like to try some place less frequented by 

 entomological and other tourists. We finally decided to make our 

 headquarters at Bejar, a town of some 10000 inhabitants, situated on 

 the railway from Salamanca to Plasencia and some 100 miles due west 

 of Madrid. It is situated in the extreme southeast corner of the 

 province of Leon, in the district of Salamanca, and close to the borders of 

 Castile and Estremadura. Its advantages, besides accessibility and 

 probably existent accommodation, were that it is at an elevation of 

 some 3300ft., and is close under the Sierra de Bejar, a mountain mass 

 rising to some 8000ft. This Sierra lies between the Sierras de Gredos 

 and de Gata. It is well separated from the latter, less definitely from 

 the former, of which it may be regarded as an outlier, though it is 

 separated by a tolerably deep valley. We found the district very 

 different in many respects from the Albarracin country. What, 

 perhaps, made it most different for us as entomologists, and different 

 for the worse, was the entire absence from the whole region of any 

 limestone formation. We came across a small outcrop at Avila on the 

 way home, and this is probably the nearest limestone to Bejar. Some 

 of the drier and more rocky slopes reminded one a good deal of places 

 near Cuenca, both in their aspect and vegetation, and in some of their 

 insects, but, broadly, the vegetation, also, was very different. The 

 Albarracin country was not mountainous, but rather an upland of 

 rough, rocky, more or less dry hills. Bejar was at the base of real 

 mountains, and away from these were considerable plains. In the 

 Albarracin sierra, away from the limestone, we had pine forests, with 

 Arctostaphylof; undergrowth, and, in the more open places, scrub or 

 thickets of Cistus, whilst on the limestone — at least, near Albarracin 

 itself — the vegetation had even a decided African flavour, as in such 

 plants as Ephedra, kc. Broom was hardly noticed. At Bejar it was 

 granite everywhere. No pine, no Cuius (or very little), no spice of 

 Africa. Oaks and chestnuts where there were any trees, where there 

 were not then broom — always broom — acres, thousands of acres, in six 

 or eight species of C'ljtisus and Genhta, and other species of those 

 genera that would hardly be colloquially called broom. 



Wishing to meet with species, especially of coleoptera for which we 

 had last year been too late, we made an earlier start, setting out on 

 June 21st. This made us really very early, since it appeared that the 

 season was very decidedly a late one in Spain, as in so many other 

 parts of Europe. The earliness of our visit certainly told very much 

 against us as collectors of butterflies. Indeed, it occurred to me more 

 than once, in the earlier part of our excursion, that if such a note as 

 the present came by any chance into existence it would be a very short 

 one, and would take the well-known form, " On Butterflies in Spain." 

 " There are no butterflies in Spain.'" This would have been ^correct. 



