10 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Villars, I chose the longer route. From Sassenage the road is 
all up-hill, with steep gradients, and, as the motor slowed down, 
I was able to see something of the larger butterflies at all 
events on the flowery banks and rocky promontories through 
which we wound. ‘The morning was fine; the sun full on the 
slopes below the Gorge d’Engins, and butterflies were in force 
with Satyrus cordula (males) in the ascendant, and very soon the 
familar Hrebia stygne. Occasional Parnassius apollo sailed lazily 
down the gullies, and the “‘ blues’’ were represented by Plebewus 
argus (egon). Aporia crategi swung from the ox-eyed-daisy- 
heads as we topped the Gorge and entered on the long, green, 
highly cultivated valley of the Lans, and there even the 
‘‘ whites’ became scarce until we reached the charming little 
country-house Hotel du Pare, where I put up for a couple 
of days; nor should I have pressed on so soon had not the 
weather, from warm and sunny, changed suddenly to cool, with 
much cloud hanging low upon the hills I had hoped to climb. 
Flying down the road on the afternoon of the 2nd I saw one 
freshly emerged Papilio machaon—the only one of its kind met 
with until the very end of July—while a stroll towards the 
Gorges of the Bourne brought me to much promising ground, 
the waste places gay with the flowers of a fine red thistle-like 
Centaurea, usually most attractive to my game. The next day, 
therefore, I walked down the Gorge, which is singularly 
beautiful with its forest and rushing stream, as far as the 
bridge where the road divides, that to the left towards St. 
Martin-en-Vercors, that to the right towards Pont-en-Royans. 
The weather was all against collecting, but before mid-day 
there were fitful gleams of sunshine, and at one or two points 
by the roadside butterflies were flying, but difficult to reach 
owing to the extreme steepness of the slopes, which, by the way, 
were rosy with an abundance of ripe alpine strawberries. Hrebia 
stygne was the commonest insect with A. crategi, and on one 
small patch, full of wild balsams not yet in flower, Huchloe 
cardamines and the spring form of Pieris napi were surprisingly 
fresh, in contrast to Brenthis euphrosyne and Pararge hiera, both 
of which species had seen their best days; a small dark race of 
P. mera evidently just emerging. One fresh male, Melitea 
dictynna, was put up among some raspberry bushes, where 
M. athalia also occurred singly. Aglais urtice and Pyrameis 
cardui showed the hibernators and their progeny overlapping. 
The Lycznids were Polyommatus icarus and (one) Lycena arion. 
But it was now so cold and the wind so high that I had to give 
up collecting; the only other butterflies observed being 
Thymelicus flavus (thawmas), Chrysophanus dorilis var. subalpina, 
and one male C. virgauree picked up crushed on the gravel 
path in front of the hotel. July 4th was equally windy and 
cool—fine without sun—and the mountains still canopied with 
