^0^ AND "^^^ 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. IX. No. 2. February 15th, 1897. 



Some observations made in Switzerland, August, 1896. 

 Les Avants — Evolena — Arolla. 



By H. IIOWLAND BKOWN. M.A., F.E.S. 



British collectors, whose time of Hitting is in Aiigust and September, 

 have bad lamentable weather this year (1896) in that happiest of hunting 

 grounds, Switzerland, while from friends living on the spot, 1 hear 

 no better accounts of the later autumn, when, to all intents and 

 purposes, the collecting season for Khopalocera is at an end. I left 

 England on July 31st, arriving at Les Avants-sur-^lontreux on 

 Sunday, August 2nd, as beautiful a morning as the heart of an 

 entomologist could desire ; and as the carriage wound up the long- 

 zigzags from the lake of Geneva, 1 was soon in a veritable garden of 

 Eden, the open lucerne and clover patches about the walnut trees on 

 the town slopes presently merging into green coppices of beech and 

 elder, about which the VancssuU were sporting themselves in endless 

 profusion ; Pohnionia c-album, At/lais urticar about the white elder 

 Howers ; LimcnitU rain ilia skimming the hazel tops, with raranjc 

 eiH'via in close attendance. Every thistle-head carried a brilliant 

 Fritillary, and the red L'mtaurca was alive with dazzling " blues " and 

 sleepy Zyg;enids. By the runnels at the roadside, Pohjonnnatm 

 (lainon, P. con/don, PlcbeiHs aei/on, P. ar(ius, and an occasional 

 Polyo)tii)iatm bt'llarf/iis, with not a few Lycaena avion, gave promise of 

 sport in the future, while I noticed Aporia cratat';/i swinging from the 

 great moon-daisies in scores. It was certainly a morning not to be 

 easily forgotten, and the long series of wet days which followed until 

 the 12th, when I made for the higher Alps, only accentuates the 

 pleasure of its memory as I look back on the past summer. Les 

 Avants, which stands 8,188 ft. above the sea level, and close upon 

 2,000 ft. above the lake, is situated upon an alp surrounded by beech 

 woods and young firs ; the Gorge du Chauderon beneath being also 

 densely wooded. The carriage road from Montreux is continued in a 

 narrowing way some distance toward the path which leads to the 

 conspicuous Dent de Jaman (G,165 ft.), and further on the now too well 

 known Roches de Naye (6,708 ft.). It was upon this road, and the 

 mountains mentioned, that I made the few observations the 

 weather permitted. Compared with the bewildering numbers of 

 butterflies that are to be seen on the higher alpine ranges, these green 

 mountain sides seemed less frequented ; the absence of water, and 

 consequent scarcity of pabulum, being, perhaps, responsible for the 



