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THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



for our calculations. When the morning of the 24th broke — 

 Midsummer Day ! — the wind had settled in the south-west ; 

 heavy clouds were rolling up from the direction of the sea, and 

 the towers of Laon Cathedral, which we had visited and admired 

 so much the night before, though ten miles away, seemed, " like 

 Birnam Wood," to have come to our own particular " Dunsi- 

 nane." For five mortal days the wind blew, and the clouds 

 gathered to discharge upon us endless falls of unwelcome rain, 

 and rare, indeed, were the intervals of sunshine when we could 

 unfurl our nets and take a modest toll of the few butterflies in 

 evidence. We had been expecting M. Rene Oberthiir, also, to 

 join us, but much to our regret he determined to postpone 

 his visit in view of the uncongenial weather which extended 

 right across Northern France from west to east, and far 

 down beyond Paris. Whenever there was the least hope of 

 taking anything we sallied out, but in the days of our visit our 

 combined efforts produced barely a hundred examples. Of 

 Limenitis populi, the first and foremost object of my desire, we 

 saw but one single example, seated on the warm, wet sand, which 

 is the prevailing soil, fanning its wings in a momentary gleam 

 of sunlight. It proved too nimble, however, for our nets, and 

 we left Samoussy without so much as a glimpse of another. 

 Chrysoplianus hxppothoe, which Mr. Sheldon had reported very 

 common in the marshes, was also unaccountably absent, while 

 Araschnia levana of the first generation was represented by a 

 couple of battered females. Of Tliecla pruni we saw no trace, 

 which was the more remarkable as the privet was in full 

 blossom, and swarming with splendid Diptera. On the flower- 

 heads of the same shrub I captured one or two belated females of 

 Melitcea maturna, one alone being considered of " cabinet rank," 

 while a second we caged on its food-plant, eventually taking her 

 of! to the Midi, where she died without depositing a single egg : 

 no doubt from want of sufficient sun warmth to encourage ovi- 

 position. Thecla ilicis was, however, in perfect condition and 

 not uncommon. Of Erebia medusa we found no trace, but 

 evidently common enough, " weather permitting," were Lime- 

 nitis sybilla, Melitcea athalia, M. dictynna, and Coenonympha 

 arcania, the three last-mentioned presenting somewhat interest- 

 ing forms : the Melitaeas with a strong melanic tendency, C. 

 arcania (which was going over) displaying a marked inclination 

 in the females to develop the brownish-yellow markings of the 

 fore wings on the lower wings as well — a form, as I am told by 

 M. Charles Oberthiir, characteristic of Samoussy and, no doubt, 

 the other fine forests which exist between Laon and Paris. A 

 pupa of Polygonia c-album, found by Mr. Warren, emerged a few 

 days later at Lyons. Most abundant of all the butterflies, how- 

 ever, was Pararge achine, as a rule settling high on the White- 

 poplar trees, to which we looked in vain for L. populi, but not 



