HITHER AND THITHER. 233 



var. provincialifi, very similar to a specimen of M. athalia figured by 

 Rowland-Brown in one of the back numbers of The Kntontohxiht. 

 Dr. Chapman, who was staying at Hyeres at the same time, was, 

 I think, equally struck with me at the extensive extermination of 

 butterflies that Avas taking place in the Carqueiranne valley. Fields 

 covered with flowers and herbage, on which doubtless numbers of eggs 

 had been laid, were being ruthlessly hoed up, and it appeared to both 

 of us, at any rate to me, that the parapets separating the terraced 

 cultivation afforded in many instances the only safe breeding-places of 

 many butterflies. I fear that increasing cultivation has largely ruined 

 Carqueiranne as a collecting ground. Mr. Raine, from a knowledge 

 of twenty years, tells me that cultivation has extended enormously ; 

 the products, by the way, going to Covent Garden market. I found 

 many insects, once common all over the valley, now confined to odd 

 corners on the hill sides. Thais medesicaste is now very local, and an 

 industrious individual could, no doubt, exterminate it with very little 

 trouble. 



From Hyeres, we journeyed to Nimes and visited that most 

 wonderful and interesting work, the Pont-du-Gard. Here we found 

 Colias liyalc just coming out, April 20th, and also a few other things 

 just on the wing. In the evening, on our return to Nimes, we found 

 we had escaped a terrific hail -storm, which had played havoc with the 

 fruit-blossom in the immediate neighbourhood of the town ; the hail- 

 stones were lying a foot deep in the gutters as we drove into Nimes. 

 Thence we made our Avay to Digne, in the Basses- Alpes, and arrived there 

 on April 23rd. With the Editor of the Record's well known articles on the 

 locality {antea vol. ix), I had no difficulty in finding my way about. It 

 is diflicult to write anything fresh concerning Digne — the Mecca of 

 British entomologists. The season was a very backward one, and, for 

 the first feAV days, Ave had rain every day, Avhich came doAvn from Les 

 Dourbes by AA'ay of the Eaux-Chaudes ; this necessitated collecting 

 away from the hills in the neighbourhood of the raihvay- station, not 

 altogether a bad locality. Les Dourbes Avas covered with snow almost 

 till the end of April, and it was quite useless to visit it for Anthocaris 

 taijis var. bellezina. We captured all the species mentioned by Mr. Tutt, 

 and had, amongst them, the good luck to take six perfect specimens of 

 Erebia episti/fjne in a sheltered nook in the hills on April 27th, a very late 

 date. Pj. evias was just coming out as we left, but I managed to take 

 some fine specimens. P<di/i/onia et/ea Avas quite common, though Avorn, on 

 the rocks bordering the Eaux-Chaudes. It is quite easy to capture. Thais 

 viedesicaste seemed to be common in its particular haunts, and, as usual, 

 the prey to local collectors, Avho seem quite unable to leave it alone. 

 One local man showed me a living specimen of the ab. honoratii Avhich 

 had oviposited, and another which had not. It by no means folloAvs 

 that the Qgg of ab. honoratii produces honoratii, the betting is consider- 

 ably against it. The Collets, on the day I first met them in the 

 valley of the Eaux-Chaudes, showed me a beautiful specimen of hono- 

 ratii quite freshly emerged ; the transference of the insect from their 

 box to mine did not take long, but I dread to think of its condition 

 when next I see it ; stoAA'ed at Whiteley's ! By the Avay these two 

 worthy individuals informed me, with considerable pride, that their 

 entomological proAvess Avas frequently mentioned in the llecord. Our 

 impression of the well- known Hotel, theBoyer-Mistre,Avas not altogether 



