NOTES ON A SUMMER TOUR IN SWITZERLAND. 245 



was at Berisal, usually one of the commonest of its tribe. 

 E. ti/ndarus, even more so as a rule, had evidently not come 

 on; while the higher stages of the road about the Kulm, usually 

 rich in E. mnestra and E. manto, only produced a sprinkling 

 of the former species on the two days —July 18th and July 

 21st — when I was collecting on the slopes which surround the 

 Kulm. 



The resting habit of E. tyndarus is, I think, worth noting. 

 When the sun is obscured it drops on to the ground, appears to 

 creep some little way quickly, and then squeezing in under the 

 herbage, turns flat on its side, when it becomes practically in- 

 distinguishable from its surroundings. Gorge, on the other 

 hand, seems to prefer the warm side of a rock, or stone, where 

 it lies motionless with outspread wings ; while glacialis crawls 

 into the interstices of the moraine, from which nothing but the 

 sun's rays will induce it to "break covert." 



It was somewhat of a novel experience again to take all three 

 Parnassiidi in good condition at the same date. P. mnemosyne 

 was still haunting the meadows round the delightful Poste Hotel, 

 which has so far escaped the vulgarization and gingerbread 

 magnificence of lower Switzerland, and remains a haven of 

 peace for the naturalist and all who seek quiet and freedom from 

 the herded tourist. P. apollo, hardly common this year, was 

 airing its wings by the roadside ; and high up, just below the 

 " Fifth Eefuge," where a sparkling stream bubbles out from a mass 

 of golden-flowered sedum, were a few P. delius of the female ab. 

 hardivickii, Kane. On the rhododendrons above M.parthenie var. 

 varia was flitting quietly about, the bright Simplon form, though 

 I was fortunate enough to secure one beautiful female almost 

 entirely suftused with black, with those characteristic "blues" 

 of the mountains— P. orbitulus and P. optilete. On the day when 

 I crossed over to the south side of the Pass, July 21st, Colias 

 paUeno put in a welcome appearance — a large form of great 

 brilliancy, with the white female, and of these I made quite a 

 decent series, having few in my collection, and none of my own 

 taking from localities other than the Brenner. Palceno especially 

 "affects the alpine-rose, and once missed invites a gallant chase ; 

 phicomone prefers the lesser hawkweed bloom. I never remember 

 Cocnonympha satyrion so rare as this year ; but C. arcania 

 var. insubrica was in perfect condition and very fine in the 

 Berisal region. Meanwhile I was keeping a sharp look-out for 

 Erebia christi, as single specimens have been taken, I believe, 

 almost at the top of the Pass opposite the Hospice, and I 

 actually netted P. mnemosyne at this unusually high altitude, 

 though I was pretty well sure that I had come too late to the 

 Laquinthal when I unfurled my net in that now famous valley 

 on a magnificent but rather windy day. Here, again, I found the 

 known habitat of this difficult little Erebia worn and trodden by 



