THE FIRST FORTNIGHT IN JULY, 1911, AT DIGNE. 99 



also plentiful but not so easy to net, and with them what I take to be 

 S. herminne, though I am never quite clear as to the distinction be- 

 tween these two species. Near the fort the scarce round-headed thistle, 

 Echinoijs litro was to be found, and on this and on another thistle were 

 numbers of A. adippe. Other captures were Hippan-hia seinele, E/iinophele 

 lycaon, P. escheri, An'cia niedon (astrarche), A(/riades coiydon, Hirsittina 

 dainon, Plebeius anjm, K. fijiini, Leptosia sinapis, PoUjijonia c-albtini, and 

 one Parnassiiis mneiinmjne. On the thyme near the river were very 

 large and fine Powellia mo and L. alciphron var. (jordias $ s, with very 

 rich purple suffusion, and $ s with strong black markings and varying 

 in size from Slmm. to 43mm. One ? has the outer row of spots in 

 the lower wings dashed with purple, and two others show this more 

 faintly. Mr. Wheeler does not appear to have noted this form, and 

 I have not met with it from any other locality. 



Before leaving Modane I made another attempt to work the Susa 

 valley by taking an early morning train through the tunnel to Meana 

 and walked up the road to the Chapel of St. M. de la Losa in the vain 

 hope of turning up P. eijea and L. celtis. The day was beautiful and the 

 view from the Chapel charming, but none of the desired insects were 

 bagged. Some very finely marked J Krehia Ivjca were taken, one 

 peculiar variegated form of M. aurelia, K. melawpus, P. escheri, Dnjas 

 paphia, C. arcania and other sundries, but these were a poor result for 

 a good day's work. We were pleased with our trip as a whole, but the 

 hotel accommodation leaves something to be desired, when compared 

 with Switzerland, and sanitation is a thing but vaguely understood or 

 quite ignored, in most of the hotels. 



The first fortnight in July, 1911, at Digne. 



By G. T. BETHUNE-BAKER, F.L.S., F.E.S. 

 {Concluded from page 71.) 

 Perhaps the most interesting of all my excursions were two days in 

 the Dourbes Mountains and valley, the latter with my friends 

 Dr. Reverdin and Prof. Blachier of Geneva, together with a party of 

 six students who were with them, but of this we will speak later. I 

 was very anxious to get on to the screes of the Dourbes. With this 

 object in view I thought I would get the assistance of Monsieur Cotte, 

 and we took this excursion together. So as not to lose time I obtained 

 the loan of a bicycle, whilst M. Cotte used his, and so starting at 6 a.m. 

 we were at the mountain path almost as soon as the sun was over the 

 ridge. Having deposited our machines in a broken down cottage a 

 little way up the hill, we were soon on our way, and most delightful 

 it was bathed in the early morning sunlight. It was not very long, 

 certainly not after 7 to 7.15 a.m. before we came across a flowery area 

 on the mountain side, and almost immediately I espied Poli/ominatiis 

 escheri creeping up to the head of a flower. It was a quite fresh 

 female, and she was soon boxed without any trouble off the stem. 

 The incident put me on the " giii vice " with the most happy results, 

 for without using my net at all I was able to bag over a dozen beautiful 

 female I', escheri, that had evidently crept up to the heads of the grass or 

 the flower for the sake of the welcome warmth of the sun, for though 

 the sun was well over the mountain tops, the air was still quite fresh. 

 It was specially interesting, however, to note that practically all were 



