NOTES ON SOME ANDALUSIAN BUTTERFLIES. 213 



March to May; but a very few holidays so spent exhaust the 

 novelty of even the numerous species of this favoured clime, and 

 we sigh for new worlds to conquer. 



After the " cote d'azur " one's thoughts naturally fly to 

 Andalusia, for one gathers from ' Baedeker ' that the climate is 

 at least as enjoyable, and favourable to the production of spring 

 butterflies, as the shores of the French Mediterranean; at 

 Granada, Cordova, and elsewhere, exist magnificent remains of 

 a civilization which a thousand years ago was the most advanced 

 in the world ; the peerless Sierra Nevada, rising some 12,000 ft. 

 out of the sea, is there ; and there Europe makes its nearest 

 approach to the tropical in climate, producing sugar-cane, 

 custard-apples, and other fruits and plants in profusion, whilst, 

 most important of all from one point of view, certain charming 

 Diurni are in Europe only found there, and of those occurring 

 which are found in Europe outside Spain several have forms 

 peculiar only to that country. 



Andalusia all the winter had been the subject of my medita- 

 tions, and arrrangements being made, I left England accom- 

 panied by my wife and daughter on April 2nd last, travelling by 

 the long overland journey via Barcelona and Madrid. 



Stoppages at these and other places made it the 12th of 

 April before we reached Andalusia, at Cordova, where we stayed 

 a couple of days to see the mosque and other sights. I did not 

 do any actual collecting at Cordova, but found the environs very 

 pretty and, incidentally, saw a good many butterflies, including 

 Eiichloe euphenoides, and something that looked liked Anthockaris 

 helemia ; no doubt good work could be done by devoting a little 

 time there. On the 14th we journeyed on to Ronda, some six 

 hours ride by rail, where we contemplated staying a week. 



Eonda is very beautifully situated in the midst of a grand 

 amphitheatre of mountains, at a height above the sea of about 

 2500 ft. ; the town is cut in two by a fine gorge, formed by the 

 river Guadalevin, 350 ft. deep, and spanned by a bridge of a 

 single arch. Ronda has other features not so inviting ; the 

 usual adjuncts of sanitation are practically non-existent, and it 

 is certainly the most malodorous town I have ever stayed in ; 

 the occupation of a large portion of the adults, and practically 

 of all the children, consists of mendicity, and they are most 

 pertinacious and annoying in the exercise of their profession. 

 Vultures abound-, and it is a grand sight to watch these immense 

 birds come sailing up the huge gulf in the mountains below the 

 town, to see if any horses have been thrown out of the bull-ring 

 for them to feed upon. The weather, which had been magni- 

 ficent for weeks previous to our arrival, broke up on the day we 

 came, and for four days I did not see an insect fly ; on the 19th, 

 however, the sun rose in a cloudless sky, and having well 

 explored the ground previously, I started betimes ; it was well I 



