BUTTERFLY-OATOHING IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MONT BLANC. 235 



This species was found up to the highest points we reached, sailing over 

 the top of Mont de la Saxe and the Glacier du Miage, free and unre 

 strained. Lime ait is Camilla occasionally haunted a shrubby honeysuckle, 

 and Melananjia galatea kept company with P. apoUo almost everywhere 

 on suitable slopes. We made a special hunt for Erehias, and got some, 

 although Erehia aethiops occurred but twice and both times at low 

 levels (at Bourg St. Maurice and Gresy near Aix les Bains), but some 

 allied species swarmed. Erehia epiphron in varied conditions of dotting 

 and spotting was sometimes not uncommon. Pararge megaera and 

 some allied non-British species occurred, but rarely in the higlier levels, 

 although the species was abundant in the Val d' Aosta, whilst H. semele, 

 fine grand fellows some of them, were met with in many places. 

 Epinephele ianira, with a double-spotted relation, and Coenonympha 

 pamphilns were not uncommon. Of the Hair-streaks only one, and that 

 a non-British species, occurred, but the lovely Coppers made up for 

 them. Brilliant little gems are the males of Chrysophanus virgaurece, and 

 abundantly they skipj^ed from flower to flower, whilst C. pJiIoeas gave 

 us here a bright form, lower down the dark form which Mr. Merrifield 

 has proved to accompany a high temperature and wliich has helped to 

 prove that melanism is often the result of a physical (pathological) process 

 which may be engendered in a variety of ways. But Lycaenas are the in- 

 sects jjar excellence of the banks here. L. corydon and L.bellargns, L. aegon 

 and L. argus, L. astrarche and L. icarus, L. acis and L. minima, L. argiolus 

 and L. argiades, with fine dark L. avion sport here, and quite a dozen 

 non-British species besides : the thyme and marjoram teem with these 

 strange little creatures, which make their wings appear to rotate by a 

 process of moving those on opposite sides in different directions. No 

 Nemeobius lucina were observed here, although a second brood turned up 

 at Aix, but malvae-like Skippers were in dozens. How many species 

 there were I dare not say ; whether Pyrgus malvae was in fact one of 

 them it is equally unsafe to assert. Nisoniades tages and some butter- 

 flies which resembled but were not it occurred, not here but at Aosta ; 

 but here, with the Yellows and Fritillaries, thousands of Pamphila 

 comma dart about diving their probosces deep into thistle and scabious, 

 hustling tlie Burnet moths, the apollox, and even the bees. P. linea and 

 P. lineola, P. sylvanus and P. actaeon all occur here, P. lineola much the 

 most frequently. 



Thus much for some of the butterflies round Courmayeur. Those 

 species which are not found in England find so little favour in the eyes 

 of British collectors that this must be my excuse for not naming them ; 

 but when three-fourths of our British species and as many other 

 non-British species besides, can l^e seen in one or two morning walks 

 among some of the most beautiful scenery in the Alps, with the Sovran 

 Dome of Mont Blanc keeping silent and watchful guard, where, when 

 butterflies and Burnet moths pall, one can turn to lovely flowers, glacial 

 torrents, glistening snow, sparkling cascades, silent and majestic moun- 

 tains or deep deep blue sky, can watch the filmy haze weave itself into 

 fanciful shapes around the aiguilles yonder and float off a wraith so 

 fairy-like and light that the blue of the sky ap])ears to pierce it, whilst 

 the sound of the cow-bells comes peacefully from the pastures above 

 and woos the sleepy dream-god, then I feel it safe to assert that tliere 

 are many worse occupations than catching "Hampstead Heath" antiopas, 

 " Dover " latonas, " Folkestone " daplidices, and jNIidland dias, on the 

 breezy slopes of the mountains around Courmayeur. 



