222 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



encountered that I venture to place these few remarks before 

 your readers. 



The day I arrived in Gotenburg, after a passage in the 

 s.s. 'Calypso' from Hull of unruffled calm and consequent com- 

 fort, was brilliantly hot with a clear sky, and I at once deter- 

 mined to pay a visit to Trollhattan by rail, since it was rumoured 

 that all the seats and berths on the Gotha Canal-boat were 

 booked, and I had no desire to be included among the congested 

 crews. The season — at all events, in this part of Sweden — 

 appeared to be well advanced, and I presently discovered that 

 the southern half of the peninsula was suffering from an unusual 

 drought. On the railway to Trollhattan I saw a single specimen 

 of Papilio machaon, the only example encountered, though I was 

 informed later by a young collector whom I met that he found 

 the larvae not uncommon in this neighbourhood. On the hills 

 surrounding the famous waterfalls, and through the shady pine- 

 woods, Pa?-ar^c mcera, a typical form but very dark, was everywhere 

 in evidence, while I also noted, more or less commonly, Coeno- 

 nympha pamphilus, C. arcania (one), and Picris rapce. These 

 butterflies presented no marked difference from those of their 

 species encountered elsewhere on the northern continent, and 

 the same may be said of the little bag I made next day at Jon- 

 koping, the pretty town which lies at the southern end of Lake 

 Vettern. Here in the public park — a wide stretch of heath, 

 marsh, and woodland — I found a pleasing variety, though I 

 should have worked this single afternoon with considerably more 

 zeal had I realized that this was the last of the sunshine at 

 suitable collecting places for many days to come. Indeed, so 

 misty and threatening was the weather next morning that I had 

 to abandon altogether my steamer trip to Stockholm by lake 

 and canal, and to take train direct. I had, however, time to 

 make the acquaintance of a fine form of Polyommatus hippothoe, 

 of which the males were more or less worn, but the females large 

 and fresh, with a wide tawny suffusion on the upper wings. 

 They haanted a little ditch at the edge of a copse, by the side of 

 which the grass grew tall and rank, and divided the honours with 

 Argynnis sclenc (typical but ^xndSl), A. euphrosyne, A.ino (males), 

 in fine condition, and occasional Melihea athalia, while on the 

 dusty road P. iiuera was again conspicuous ; the males with a 

 supplementary well developed small eye-spot above the customary 

 ocellation on the upper side of the fore wings. 



The neighbourhood of Stockholm is scarcely favourable to 

 butterfly life, and I saw very few species on the many pleasant 

 excursions, which for a week or so now occupied my time — these 

 undertaken mostly by steamer to one or other of the resorts to 

 which all good Swedes betake themselves when the days lengthen 

 out into twenty-four hours of sunshine and twilight. I do not 

 note having met with any butterflies at all actually in the capital. 



