A month's collecting in HUNGARY. 103 



gorge, where I took a beautiful series of perfect specimens, 

 though many were caught only to be released again, owing to 

 their being chipped or torn, as this species very quickly becomes 

 broken and ragged, partly, no doubt, owing to their habit of 

 continually flying in and amongst the leaves and foliage of the 

 trees and shrubs. I took most of my series in the afternoon on 

 the way back to Herkulesbad. In the morning they seemed to 

 be much more lively, not settling on the road or low down, but 

 generally on the top twigs or leaves of a tree, and if disturbed 

 flying rather quickly up the hillside until they were lost in the 

 wood ; but about three o'clock they would come down and fly 

 gently up and down a sunny glade or along the side of the stone 

 wall which borders the road for some distance, often stopping 

 and lingering at some spot where the sun's rays came through 

 the leaves overhead, as though loth to leave it ; or else sitting 

 on the road itself with outspread wings, when they were easy 

 enough to catch. They varied a good deal in size ; some of the 

 males are very small, but amongst the large number netted and 

 examined, no aberrations of any sort were observed — all were 

 absolutely tyjDical. 



On the whole butterflies were not nearly so plentiful as 

 I had expected ; whether this was due to the weather, or to a 

 late season, or whether my anticipations had led me to hope for 

 too much, I do not know ; but I certainly did not meet with 

 anything like all the species I had anticipated. Certainly one 

 cannot complain of the lack of E. cardamines and L. siuapis, as 

 almost everywhere these two species were abundant ; the latter 

 large with well-marked under sides. N. tages also was in very 

 great numbers along the road up the gorge ; here, too, P. orion 

 was beginning to come out, and before I left had become fairly 

 common, though it was local ; most of my specimens are var. 

 ornata, but a few tend to var. nigra. 



About a couple of miles up the gorge the valley widens out, 

 the mountainous sides become much less steep, and delightful 

 open marshy glades and meadows break into the thick woods; 

 here butterflies were rather more numerous. Everes argiades 

 was quite common and very large ; equally common, but rather 

 more local, was E. coretas ab. decolorata. Both these species 

 were flying together in damp spots amongst the lush grass 

 which grew round the little streams and tiny bogs. Here, too, 

 N. cijllarus was almost plentiful, splendid large examples of both 

 sexes. They generally have very little spotting on the under 

 side of the upper wings. One or two fresh Callophrys ruhi were 

 also netted in the same place. Some three miles up the valley 

 there is a large meadow on the right of the road, here fresh 

 P. mnemosyne were plentiful, and two days later I found another 

 locality for this species nearer Herkulesbad, where both sexes 

 were flying up and down in some numbers. It is rather a fine 



