AN ALGERIAN HOLIDAY. 



139 



a poor country, with range after range of low barren hills, a very 

 different land from the rich and fertile plain I had left behind 

 me. About mid-day we reached Saida, a garrison town newly 

 laid out, and in a very unfinished condition, with an indifferent 

 hotel. The morning had again been a fine one, and immediately 

 after lunch I hurried out of the town, and near a negro village 

 found a grassy place by the river which the rains had turned 

 into a swamp. However, I trampled up a number of E. var. 

 fortunata, all males, and a Melanargia, which turned out to be 

 M. lucasi, a species of which I should no doubt have got a better 

 series had the meteorological conditions been more favourable. 

 The swamps and ditches and very wet grass prevented me work- 

 ing the ground properly, and there was no sun to make the 

 insects fly, so I only succeeded in catching two specimens and a 

 half, for number three had received unwelcome attention from a 

 lizard or a bird, and had lost a large part of both of the hind 

 wings. Others were seen, but a chase was impossible. Several 

 Pierids were captured, which proved to be quite ordinary Pieris 

 rajJcB, but one nice specimen of Anthocharis helemia var. glance, 

 helped to make amends. While I was watching an Arab funeral 

 cross the bridge I noticed that heavy clouds were rolling up and 

 the sky became so threatening that I thought it advisable to 

 return to the hotel and make the best of the sorry comfort it 

 afforded. Hardly had shelter been gained when the storm broke 

 and there was another of the deluges of rain to which I was 

 getting accustomed in Algeria. There was no train leaving for 

 the south until the evening of the following day, so I made up 

 my mind to retrace my steps to the more fertile and attractive 

 regions near the coast. At five o'clock on the morning of May 

 29th, when I left Saida and turned my face north again, the rain 

 was coming down as hard as ever, and so it continued for the 

 greater part of the day. As we got near Oran the weather 

 cleared up again, and from the carriage window one could see 

 Pieris rapcB and Colias edusa flying in the cornfields. 



Oran is a large and important place of 88,000 inhabitants, 

 about half of whom are French, and the district round is highly 

 cultivated. On the morning after my arrival a visit was paid to 

 the racecourse, not for the usual purposes for which such places 

 are frequented, but because the landlord of the hotel thought it 

 was the most likely place for butterflies. Alighting from the 

 tram the exhilarating sight of Dryas pandora raised hopes of 

 better fortune. Pandora is a strong flier, and the chances of 

 taking it on the wing are not great, and a hot run only ended 

 when my quarry sailed lightly over a garden wall and became 

 lost to sight. The two Pierines I had seen from the train were 

 flying everywhere, and so too was that ubiquitous insect, Pi/rameis 

 cardui, which is very abundant in Algeria. From some low bushes 

 I turned out Epinephele passiphce var. philippina, but the strong 



l2 



