BUTTERFLY HUNT IN SOME PARTS OF FRANCE. 387 



cently with wet alluvial deposit, and haunted by marsh Lepid- 

 optera — we came in about twenty minutes to a level railway 

 crossing, a few minutes beyond a large farmhouse where entire 

 poplar avenues had been laid low by a recent hurricane, and 

 hereabouts M. Brown informed me I might hope to set eyes on 

 my quarry. Hitherto, beyond swarms of Epinephcle tithonus, a 

 very small form of MeliUea 'parthenie, and one or two Celastrina 

 argiolus, with a single battered Ipliidides podalirius, we had seen 

 nothing worthy of a box. 



But at this point we entered an unreclaimed fen extending 

 for about a quarter of a mile, narrow in width, but essentially 

 primitive land, with broad ditches dividing it from fields on one 

 side, and the road on the other. I had hardly unpacked my net 

 when the unmistakable glint of copper wings announced us 

 on the right ground, though this proved to be no more than a 

 single stray male from much further on. The sight of occasional 

 heads of the Great Water Dock among many other familiar 

 aquatic plants, punctured and caterpillar-eaten, gave promise of 

 further success ; while the whole inland area, entirely dry after 

 the prolonged drought, teemed with butterfly life. Polyom- 

 matus icarus, a fine bright form ; Loweia dorilis, small and 

 rather wasted ; Everes argiades, even more dwarf, Pyrgus sao, 

 Melitcea cinxia, and M. parthenie disputed possession of the 

 fleabane flowers and frequent spires of purple loosestrife, on 

 which also Lampides hoeticiis — a very common "blue" about 

 Bordeaux — disported with Colias edusa (I missed a fine ab. pal- 

 lida, Tutt), Pyrameis cardui, and other Vanessids. But, the 

 sky becoming momentarily overcast, it was not until the very 

 end of the marsh was reached that I began the chase for rutilus 

 in earnest. The few males on the wing at this point were 

 getting worn ; the females, rare but in good condition : both 

 sexes very small. 



After returning for dejeuner to Le Vigean, exploration of 

 the swampy fields further on and a walk back late in the 

 afternoon to the Blanquefort-Bordeaux tramway by the banks 

 of a little river resulted in the capture of some ten or twelve 

 more examples. But I had now all the indications I required, 

 and next day I started work alone at the furthest field from the 

 marsh, whence I was speedily ejected by an excited farmer, 

 though what possible harm I could be doing in all that tangle of 

 weeds, of which his pasture (!) consisted, beats my compre- 

 hension. My mild baritone invective was, however, no match 

 for the terrific tenor patois which distracted that good man's 

 vocal chords ; and I bowed to the storm. Undisturbed in this 

 same waste the day before, I had come upon two rutilus larvae, 

 one quite small, the other in the last instar, suggesting a some- 

 what prolonged emergence, though not a few females were 

 already wasted. I handed over these larvae to M. Brown to 



