AN ALGERIAN HOLIDAY. 171 



p;reenery of the steep hillside. Attached to it is a m^dersa, or 

 Arab university, and when I was again at the spot a few days 

 later an Arab gentleman, apparently some one of importance, 

 came out to inspect my net and find out why I was catching 

 butterflies. One thing he wanted to know was whether I ate 

 them ! After leaving the mosque I got into someone's garden, 

 and there I took my third specimen of E. eupheno. But it was 

 not until the city gates were almost reached that the great event 

 of the day happened. Just outside Tiem^en, in a market garden, 

 was a bank clothed with tall milk-thistles five or six feet high, 

 which were in full flower, and on the blossoms several magnifi- 

 cent Dryas 'pandora were settled, and I thus learned that the way 

 to catch this beautiful creature was to take it while resting on 

 these flowers. Six specimens, one after the other, were caught 

 in this way, and I made a point of visiting this particular bed of 

 thistles whenever possible about noon, and so secured a nice 

 series. After lunch another part of the hillside was explored, 

 but without much satisfaction, Anthocharis var. ausonia being 

 the most noteworthy butterfly netted. Three more of them 

 were taken the next morning, when I visited the remarkable 

 remains of the old city of Mansoura. Close to the ruined 

 mosque I discovered another big clump of milk-thistles, where 

 pandora was disporting itself, and after an uncomfortable hunt 

 among these prickly plants I managed to add three to my 

 series. Poli/ommatus var. calida was again in evidence, the 

 only other Lycaenid taken being P. icarus. On leaving the 

 ruins of the city I climed the hill and traced the course of the 

 ancient conduit, constructed to bring the waters down to fertilise 

 its gardens and fill its fountains, but now used for the more 

 prosaic purpose of driving an oil mill. Descending again 

 nearer Tlem9en I found fortunata abundant, but the steep 

 declivity forbade a very prolific chase. The remains of yet an- 

 other large city are to be seen near Tlem9en. Agadir, whose 

 ruins are scattered over a considerable tract of ground, was built 

 on the site of the Roman Pomaria. Many beautiful koubbas are 

 to be seen in the woods, and the tower of the old mosque is still 

 in a fair state of preservation. But I am wandering into archae- 

 ology again, and must only say with regard to Agadir that 

 pandora haunts its ruins as it does those of Mansoura. 



I was invited by a fellow-countryman whom I met in the 

 hotel at Tlemyen to accompany him to Lallah Maghnia, a forti- 

 fied post on the Moroccan border, and I gladly joined forces with 

 him for the expedition. Although I believe the place can boast 

 a respectable past, it consists now for the most part of a modern- 

 looking small town, which has sprung up round the military 

 station. During the three days of my visit there was a very 

 cold wind blowing, and the only spots in which insects were to 

 be found were the deep guUeys cut through the fields by the rains 



