254 THE entomologist's kecokd. 



joined forces with me and we were on the ground early. There were 

 still a few unemerged pup?e, but the abundance of the imago was 

 beyond belief. They were everywhere on the mountain- top, flying 

 when the sun shone and crawling about when the clouds obscured it. 

 They were so abundant that we welcomed the cloudy spells, so as to 

 save the labour of netting. Had numbers been my object, the quantity 

 would simply have been limited by the supply of boxes, as one could 

 fill boxes as quickly as on a good night at treacle. Mr. Home 

 admitted that with his big experience of the species he had never seen 

 quite such numbers, nor struck them in such good condition. There 

 were a fair number of females now, but practically all were sitting 

 about paired on the grass, generally with some half-dozen males in 

 close attendance. I found one emerging from a cocoon, and although 

 only just the head was shewing, already quite a number of males were 

 buzzing round her. The insect was everywhere over an area of some 

 miles, but not in equal quantities. It occurred from the highest point 

 of the hill, which is 2,821ft. down to about 2,100ft. It swarmed in 

 small colonies, especially in spots where grass and bilberry predominated, 

 with many stragglers in between, and on some of the small grassy 

 patches of only a few yards extent, one seemed able to pick them up 

 almost without limit. With such numbers it is inconceivable why 

 there is no migration to neighbouring hills, which all seem to be alike, 

 but yet have no cxulans. The larva I found was feeding on grass, and 

 the pupfe were spun up indiscriminately on grass, heather, bilberry and 

 whortleberry, and one on a rock. 



I only paid one more visit to the ground — on the 11th — not from 

 lack of inclination, but because the keeper thought it was quite near 

 enough to the shooting season not to risk further disturbance of thegrouse 

 and deer. As a matter of fact, on this last day I got quite near to a 

 herd of red deer, counting 38 stags, and there were many others 

 probably, just over the edge of the sky-line. On this day also I saw 

 some ptarmigan, a fox and several hares, besides a lot of grouse. A. 

 exulans was already getting over, and I contented myself with picking 

 specimens here and there. The wind was high and they were still in 

 vast numbers, but many were very worn. The small colonies seemed 

 now to be broken up and the moths were fairly distributed over the 

 whole ground, bilberry, grass, heather and whortleberry all being 

 equally attractive. The sexes are strikingly different, the yellow legs 

 and yellowish streaks and outlines of the spots on the forewings con- 

 spicuously distinguishing the females, but apart from this there seems 

 little variety except in size and, to a less degree, in the density of the 

 scaling. Moreover these yellowish markings to a great extent fade 

 after death, and are not nearly so conspicuous when the moth comes 

 ofT the setting boards as when alive. Some incline more to green and 

 others more to blue, but I believe the variation in colour of the spots 

 and hindwings towards whitish, described by Barrett, is entirely due 

 to fading. These forms were quite absent on the 3rd and 4th, but 

 plentiful enough on the 11th. A number of the females had the wings 

 distended with fluid, but no males. One of each sex was taken with 

 only three wings. A right hindwing was missing in each case, but 

 otherwise the specimens were fully developed and well scaled. 



But of I'soilos tn'i)iilaiia, which I also missed last year, I have a 

 different tale to tell. I had always been inclined to discredit the 



