286 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



mens, damaged, last year in July; and took one very fine male this year 

 in June, but saw no others. 



Melanargia galatea, L. — Occurs commonly in Hungary and Austria ; 

 var. leucomelas, Esp., occasionally with the type ; and from the Do- 

 moglet, near Herkulesbad. I have some very black examples of the var. 

 procida, Hbst. One female I took there last year is pfocida above and 

 leucomelas beneath. 



M. japygia var. suwarovius, Hbst. — It was to take this interesting 

 variety that caused me to visit Buda-Pest, as I had heard on good 

 authority that the only known locality in the whole of Hungary where 

 it occurred was a wood at Peszer in that neighbourhood. Therefore at 

 every Friday evening gathering of the Buda-Pest entomologists I would 

 enquire anxiously if the suwarovius was yet on the wing ; and, after a 

 week or ten days, at last a day was fixed to make the great expedition 

 to Peszer, which from all accounts appeared to be about the most in- 

 accessible place imaginable. On the 12th of June, beneath a brilliant 

 sky, we started in the early morning from Buda-Pest, a party of five 

 in all, Herr Aigner acting as guide, as he alone had previously visited 

 this wonderful spot. About two hours in a slow train brought us to 

 Dabas ; but there our hardships were to begin. Herr Aigner secured 

 a cart at the station drawn by two little Hungarian horses — a sort of 

 miniature hay wagon it seemed to me ; and the first jog along the road 

 to the village of Dabas was enough to show us that it was entirely in- 

 nocent of springs. The way was long ; and to say that the road was 

 bad would be to give but a faint idea of the tract of country over which 

 we travelled in our springless vehicle ; the sand was so deep in many 

 places that the wheels sank in up to the axle ; but the horses seemed 

 quite accustomed to it, and did their work well. The farther we went 

 the worse it got ; and, by and by, we left the so-called road aud seemed to 

 be pursuing a half-beaten track across the open grass land ; twice the way 

 lay through great sheets of water, in one of which we stuck in the mud, 

 and I thought nothing could save us from being upset ; but no one else 

 seemed to think anything of it, so I concluded that this too was part 

 of the play ! We were now quite in the wilds of Hungary ; at intervals 

 we passed through immense herds of long-horned cattle ; but human 

 life seemed to be but thinly represented. I could not but admit that 

 Herr Aigner was right when he had told me that the way from Dabas 

 to Peszer would have been absolutely impracticable for a bicycle. I 

 really began to think we should never get there ; it was more than two 

 hours since we had started from Dabas, and still we were bumping and 

 jolting along, stiff and tired even before reaching the scene of action. But, 

 whatever the hardships and risks of the way had been, they were more 

 than compensated for when we did arrive. It was indeed an entomo- 

 logist's dream realized, when we alighted, to find ourselves in a forest 

 literally abounding with butterflies, and where the suwarovius was the 

 most conspicuous of all ; it was flying by hundreds — a white, graceful 

 creature — in all the grassy glades of this wonderful forest, and nearly 

 all in perfect condition. The females were especially beautiful, the 

 under side of the hind wings and apex of the fore wings being broadly 

 suffused with a deep primrose tint. Knowing that I should probably 

 not find myself in this world-forsaken spot again, I secured all my box 

 would hold, and only regretted that I had not brought two boxes. 



