Fubniary, 1879] 193 



NOTES ON THE BUTTERFLIES OF PORT BAKLAR, TURKEY. 

 BY JAMES J. "WALKER, R.N. 



From the 24th February to the 15th August, 1878, H. M. S. 

 " Swiftsure," was stationed in the Gulf of Xeros, at an anchorage near 

 its eastern end, marked on the Admiralty chart as Port Baklar. This 

 port is distant by land about twelve miles from Gallipoli, the road to 

 that town passing through the famous " Lines of Boulair : " and about 

 four miles, across the narrow isthmus of Gallipoli, from the Sea of 

 Marmora. While here, in the " Swiftsure," besides collecting all the 

 Coleoptera and Semiptera I could find (which, although abundant 

 enough in early spring, became very scarce after May), I paid a little 

 attention to the Lepidoptera. A few hasty notes on the butterflies 

 I observed within five miles of the port — seventy-four species in all — 

 may be not devoid of interest ; and these notes I preface with a brief 

 description of the locality. 



The landing-place at Port Baklar is on a sandy beach, backed by 

 a strip of salt marsh, which gradually rises into low clay hills ; on one 

 of these, about two miles inland, stands the large and excessively dirty 

 village of Boulair. Turning to the left on landing, and proceeding 

 towards the head of the Gulf, ten minutes' walking brings one on to 

 a range of low sandstone cliffs, about two miles in length ; much of 

 the land on the top of these cliffs is under cultivation as vineyards, &c., 

 but there is a good and varied growth of flowers and herbage on their 

 face, and in some sheltered chines are a few good-sized elms, poplars, 

 and aspens, with clumps of thorny bushes and great festoons of honey- 

 suckle, bramble, and Smilax; trees, though, are generally scarce through- 

 out the district. Inland, the country becomes more hilly and broken, 

 intersected by deep, narrow watercourses, the sides of which bear a 

 good growth of bushes of variovis kinds : the most conspicuous feature 

 in the scenery being the fine conical tumulus of Lysimachus, locally 

 known as "Mai Tepe," from the summit of which, 790 feet above the 

 sea-level, and more than 100 above the surrounding heights, a superb 

 view of the Sea of Marmora and the Gulf of Xeros can be obtained 

 on a clear day. This tumulus is about five miles from the landing- 

 place, and I rarely went more than half-a-mile beyond it. It is, 

 perhaps, worth noting that all except two (Arffi/nnis Daj)hne and 

 Pyrgiis malvaruvi) of the butterflies hereafter mentioned, occurred on 

 the two miles of cliffs. 



My entomological solitude was, in Jul}^, enlivened by the company 

 of Mr. G. F. Mathew, whose ship (H. M. S. " Cygnet") was then 

 stationed at the Marmora end of the Boulair lines, and with whom I 

 had more than one very pleasant excursion. 



