NOTES ON SCANDINAVIAN AND LAPLAND BUTTERFLIES. 221 



late, and with this in mind I determined to see what I could of 

 Southern Sweden first, and so time my arrival in Lapland as I 

 anticipated with the height of the summer. My forecast — 

 sanguine in every respect hoth as to time, occasion, and results 

 — was, however, doomed to disappointment, and, although in the 

 five weeks or so I was in Scandinavia I experienced in every 

 other respect much that was delightful as well as novel, the 

 Fates were dead against my butterfly hunting from start to 

 finish ; not because I hit invariably the wrong localities, but 

 chiefly because the skies were persistently overcast, though the 

 weather was otherwise fine, and the heat sometimes quite sug- 

 gestive of the "Midi." My brethren of the net will, I feel sure, 

 sympathize with me under these entomologically depressing 

 conditions ; the more so when I say that hardly a day passed in 

 Lapland without the sun bursting forth in full splendour at 

 about 11 p.m., and remaining in a clear sky until 3 or perhaps 

 4 a.m. Meanwhile, I had equipped myself with all available in- 

 formation as to localities, and further was glad to hear from 

 Prof. Aurivillius that the headquarters chosen by me north of 

 the Arctic Circle was largely unexplored ground for insects. For 

 the benefit of any collector who should chance to follow in my 

 footsteps — and the enterprise of the Swedish State Railways, 

 coupled with the good pioneer work of the Swedish Touring 

 Club, is rapidly developing these hitherto inaccessible regions — 

 I venture to suggest one or two works as useful guides, for 

 the majority of which I am indebted to Herr Sparre- Schneider, 

 the Conservator of the Tromso Museum and a scientist 

 thoroughly acquainted with the insect-fauna of Finmark. 

 But Herr Lampa's Swedish lists are rendered much less use- 

 ful than they would be otherwise by the omission of dates, 

 and this under the peculiar conditions of the Scandinavian 

 climate is, of course, a serious drawback. Nor does there seem 

 to be any recent Swedish work on the subject to assist the 

 ordinary collector ; though possibly a better knowledge of the 

 language would have helped me to discover something of the 

 kind in the Stockholm Natural History Museum. Prof. Auri- 

 villius's ' Nordens Fjiirilar' (1888-91), with its excellent letter- 

 press, and luminous woodcuts in such striking contrast to the 

 wretched coloured plates which represent any other butterflies 

 than those of Scandinavia, is therefore the best handbook in 

 print, so far as I know ; while, save in the environs of the Capital, 

 there have not been such developments, either of building or of 

 industries, as to destroy old localities, and I fancy, given the 

 right conditions, I should have found most of the Lapland 

 butterflies as plentiful — or otherwise — in the haunts where they 

 were recorded by Wallengren and by Zetterstedt over half a 

 century since. It is, therefore, principally with the hope that I 

 may be able to put dates to the emergences of species actually 



