BUTTERFLY-HUNTING IN THE BALKANS. 



123 



the neighbourhood. Behind the hotel is a park where the band 

 plays on Sundays, and beyond it rises a mountain slope clothed 

 with wild sage and other plants, quite a flowery bank^ for 

 Montenegro. I made my way to this, hoping to find Tliais 

 polyxena, which I knew occurred somewhere hereabouts, and in 

 a short time I secured four specimens, not in very first rate 

 condition, for June 7th is a late date for this species. My time 

 on the hillside, however, was limited, for I had to return to_ the 

 town to keep an eleven o'clock appointment with the British 

 Minister, the Count de Salis. To that gentleman I am indebted 

 for many little kindnesses and much information which helped 

 to make my stay in Montenegro pleasant. Pieris ergane was in 

 evidence on the hillside, and I got a rather interesting series, 

 including the aberrations of the female, upon which Rostagno 

 has bestowed the names magnimaculata, in which the spots are 

 much enlarged, and longomaculata, in which they are elongated 

 and united to form a cloudy band. But the commonest Pierid 

 appeared to be P. hmssiccB, which was to be seen everywhere. 

 After lunch I climbed the hills in another direction, but was not 

 so fortunate as in the early morning, for I struck upon a district 

 where the slopes were covered for the most part with loose 

 stones, with hardly any flowers to enliven their desolate appear- 

 ance, and only some low scrub around which nothing was flying. 

 The next morning was dull, but I decided to try my luck on the 

 road to Rjeka and to visit the Belvedere, from which place I was 

 told a fine view was to be obtained. Some rain fell soon after I 

 started, and I had to take shelter under the bushes, but I found 

 Pararge viara flying between the showers. Persevering, I reached 

 the Belvedere, and was well rewarded for my walk. A rough 

 pavilion is erected on a commanding rock, and from it a most 

 wonderful panorama of mountain, valley, lake and stream is to 

 be seen. Fifteen hundred feet below lies a deep valley stretch- 

 ing right away towards the distant lake of Skutari, the shores of 

 which are partly Turkish and partly Montenegrin, while on the 

 horizon the gloomy mountains of Albania rise, peak after peak, 

 in endless succession. They are known as '* the Mountains of 

 the Damned," and their terrible slopes are said to have never been 

 climbed by a stranger. What entomological treasures they con- 

 tain no one knows, but perhaps recent happenings may hasten 

 the day when it will be safe for the butterfly-hunter to venture 

 into that lawless country, now inhabited by fierce and half 

 civihzed people, with some of whom I came in contact a few 

 days later in the cattle-market at Podgorica. The weather had 

 brightened a little, and occasional rays of sunshine enlivened the 

 scene, lighting up the waters of the distant lake. At my feet 

 was the excellent road made by King Nicholas, winding down 

 the steep slopes of the rock-strewn valley, which had repeatedly 

 proved a death-trap to the hoardes of Turks, who for so many 



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