SIX WEEKS AMONGST HUNGARIAN BUTTERFLIES. QAT 
With the companion of several previous expeditions, Mr. 
K. F. S. Tylecote, I reached Budapest on May 29th last. The 
next day the net was unfurled on the Schwabenberg, or Svab- 
hegy as it is called in Magyar, a hill several miles west of 
Budapest, best reached by taking the electric tram from the 
west end of the Franz Josef Bridge over the Danube as far as 
the Varos Major terminus of the rack and pinion railway, by 
which one then travels to the station of Svab-hegy itself. 
Svab-hegy is a large rounded hill, rising to perhaps six or 
eight hundred feet above the surrounding country, fast becoming 
a suburb of Budapest, and already covered in parts with villas. 
But it has still considerable stretches of uncultivated land, con- 
sisting of grassy slopes, rough ground thickly covered with a 
growth of herbs and flowers, and stretches of wood, chiefly oak, 
with open glades in places; the subsoil is calcareous. 
On leaving the station one follows the line which terminates 
at the top of the hill further on by taking the road on the left 
side, running parallel to it for a few hundred yards, until 
a flight of wooden steps is seen leading to the left up the hill- 
side, at the top of which is a patch of oak scrub of several acres 
in extent, with some nice glades running through and amongst 
it. Here were plenty of butterflies, amongst them Canonympha 
iphis and C. arcania being abundant; the latter a fine, large, 
bright form; the former with the ocelli much larger than in 
French or Swiss examples; Melitea phoebe was frequent, and 
the slow flight of Leucophasia sinapis was unmistakable. A 
large Hesperiid flying plentifully rapidly to and fro was netted, 
and proved to be H. carthami ; various species of the Lycenide 
were seen, including Lycena hylas, L. bellargus, L. icarus, and 
Rusticus argus (egon), which was abundant. 
Proceeding further I came to a large open space thickly 
covered with flowering plants, almost to the exclusion of grass, 
and including the fine purple Salvia pratensis (a rare British 
plant), various species of vicia, and numerous composites. 
The wealth of insect life here was quite unusual, and, in 
addition to butterflies, one came across many moths found 
in Britain, including Lithostege griseata, Agrophila sulphuralis, 
Scoria lineata, Heliothis dipsacea, and Acontia luctuosa; an 
assemblage which it would be difficult to meet with in our islands 
in one field. With them occurred in abundance the butterfly 
which was the chief object of my visit to Svab-hegy—the lively 
little black and white skipper Pyrgus orbifer, which reaches at 
Budapest almost its western limit. My predecessors, who had 
visited Hungary in early June, had invariably found this species 
passé. On this day it was considerably past its best, and I had 
to use much selection to get a good series. I should give the 
middle of May as the best time; its habits of flight are similar to 
Hesperia malve, which was equally common with it; on the wing 
