X48 [December, 



EREBIA CASSIOPE AT HOME. 

 BY JANE FEASEE. 



Of the four localities in Perthshire where I have met with Urebiai 

 Cassiope, three are on the northern slope of mountains, and thus 

 peculiarly exposed to cold wind. During last summer (1880) ] 

 observed Cassiope on the wing for the first time on June 16th, the day 

 was bright arid sunny, with a strong wind from the east, only a very few 

 of the insects (all males) were to be seen, and all had that velvety 

 appearance which betokens recent emergence. On June 25th, it was: 

 out in great abundance, and on July 1st, still appeared in largi; 

 numbers, and though some of them were worn and tattered, many o 

 both sexes appeared to be freshly out. 



Among the Perthshire hills there is one, which, though on! 

 between 2U00 and 3000 feet high, is rather famous as a place wher 

 strangers not well up in the geography of the surroundings, are ap 

 to lose their way, and have been known to wander as far as a shepherd 

 hut in a neighbouring glen, several miles in an opposite direction fror 

 the glen they started from in the morning. It is certainly one of th 

 wildest, rockiest bits of hill ground in Perthshire, at the base pretty we 

 wooded with birch, fir, hazel, and alder, and there is one secluded spc 

 where, underneath the hazels, the rare Scopula decrepitalis has its hom< 

 Prom half-way up the mountain to the summit there are innume: 

 able high ridges of rock, and between these ridges there are rills < 

 clear sparkling water foaming and tumbling over rocks and stone 

 sometimes forming still pools which reflect the heather-clad bank 

 and here and there huge masses of rock are lying, which must i 

 times gone by have rolled down from the mountain top, but now a* 

 overgrown with heather, blaeberry, and crowberry. These huf> 

 detached masses form favourite resting places for the Peregrii 

 Falcon, and more than once I have got a glimpse of this grand-lookir 

 bird perched in such spots, and as traces of the fur of the mounta 

 hare and feathers and bones of birds may be observed sometimes 

 the tops of those rocks, it would seem to be a habit of the Peregri 

 to convey his food there. 



On July 1st, we ascended this hill from the north, its steep* 

 and most rocky side. The morning had been cold and misty, but t 

 clouds gradually " lifted," and at last the sun sent forth a blaze 

 heat, and immense numbers of insects appeared on the wing. Fr< 

 the sheltered side of nearly every rock Larentia ccesiata rose 

 crowds at our approach, some of them with the dark bar on the fo:i 

 wing very black and strongly marked, and, wherever there was a bit 



