BUTTERFLY HUNT IN SOME PARTS OF FRANCE. 339 



ever identified, and whether after all it may not have been 

 andromedce ! I can find no record of the Baron having pushed 

 his enquiries further. Probably, like the majority of collectors, 

 having read half-a-dozen descriptions of "skippers" which 

 " might be it " ! and pored over as many imperfectly executed 

 coloured plates, he gave it up as a bad job. At Biarritz, a 

 month later, I observe, he had further accumulated "deux ou 

 trois especes a etudier." From the remark about Erebias, how- 

 ever, I am inclined to think he never got higher than the grass 

 interval between the beech-woods and the upper zone, where 

 certainly we found more than his single hete noire — stygne. Un- 

 less, therefore, we had ascended far up under and on to the 

 Col de Lurde, I do not suppose we should ever have seen andro- 

 medce in the Pyrenees. Mr. Wheeler does not suggest a zone 

 limit for the species in Switzerland ; the one or two examples in 

 my collection I took high above Berisal, under the Wasenhorn, 

 at not less than 6500 ft. ; and above Franzenshohe, on the 

 Stelvio, which would be 7000 ft. at the lowest. Frey says that 

 in the Austrian Alps it occurs at 4000 ft., but this must be 

 exceptional, if authentic. 



On July 8th we explored the Val de la Sourde, the valley 

 reaching far up into the mountains directly south-east. Heavy 

 rain had fallen in the night, the air was still and oppressive, 

 and in the rare forest-clearings only an occasional Leptosia 

 sinapis fluttered languidly. About noon, however, we had come 

 to a very steep piece of rock on the opposite side of a snow- 

 strewn valley under the Pic de Ger, having caught absolutely 

 nothing ; and here but a few worn Erebia lappona, and the 

 sight of a distant herd of issard — the Pyrenean chamois — _re- 

 warded our labour. While soon after the rain came rushing 

 down, and we were forced to spend an hour or so in a shep- 

 herd's hut — the only place in the whole day's excursion where 

 drinkable water was procurable. On the 9th, Mr. Warren 

 spent the morning, which was again very sultry, in some 

 meadows below the town. A few Anthocera brizcB fell to his 

 net, but no captures of any note. On the 11th, after a long 

 walk under a tropical sun we arrived at the Col d'Aubisque 

 (5610 ft.), on the route to Argeles, only to be baffled once 

 again by a cold wind-driven mist at the summit. I think, 

 however, that we did not miss much in this quarter, as the grass 

 and mountain-sides were grazed close by innumerable flocks, 

 and even where the sun was shining lower down, the lack of 

 insect-life was due, I think, to the poverty of the vegetation 

 ratber than to climatic drawbacks. 



The subjoined list is made up chiefly, therefore, of butterflies 

 taken or observed in the neighbourhood of the Col de Lurde, 

 for though we overhauled the maps, and reconnoitred in all 

 directions, we could find no better, indeed no other, ground 



