NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS, 153 
order to escape arriving at Messina at the inconvenient hour of 
2 a.m., I broke my journey on the morning of May 16th at Cajanella 
(pronounced Canella), a roadside station fifty miles north of Naples. 
The village itself was very picturesque, nestling at the foot of an 
isolated hill between higher hills. This hill was crowned with a 
ruined castle and a roofless chapel, which reminded me of Corfe 
Castle, Dorset, and I found there was a grand view (as at Corfe) from 
the top across the plain. On the plain, farmhouses sheltered by 
trees and bushes were dotted about, and nightingales were in full 
song in broad day at each of them, while near the station hundreds 
of house-martins had their nests in the eaves of an immense old 
building, probably a former monastery. The main road was good, 
but the lanes were very muddy, and in places quite impassable 
owing to recent heavy rains, and as a consequence butterflies were 
very scarce, tcarus and rape being most in evidence. When I was 
nearly stuck in the mud, a youth came to my assistance and acted 
as guide until I left, and would take no tip! He was quite satisfied 
with the opportunity to pick up a little English, his ambition being 
to emigrate to America shortly. Reaching Messina at 8.30 a.m. on 
March 31st, I was in time for a good breakfast and able to spend a 
full day enjoying the delightful atmosphere of Sicily, this being, I 
was told, the first really nice day for several weeks past. 
Next day a picnic was arranged for me at the Campo Inglese, 
where Lord Nelson formed his camp over one hundred years ago, 
but from experience I recognise that picnics, like field meetings, are 
seldom successful from a collector's point of view. Before reaching 
the top of the hill I separated from my party to climb a spur of 
Monte Cicci, intending to rejoin them at the camp. The only 
butterflies on the wing were whites, and while I was on the steep 
slope I noticed a cloud of large whites crossing the valley below, 
moving towards the west. There must have been thousands of 
them, and a few stragglers came up the hill in my direction, males 
of Preris brassice, in good condition. I learnt afterwards that a 
couple of friends of mine saw the cloud passing over the torrent bed 
at La Scala, two or three miles further west, and captured some 
specimens. With regard to the migration of butterflies I was told 
in 1910 by a native of Cucuraci, the nearest village to the Campo 
Inglese, that the people there look for an annual invasion of 
white butterflies about May 20th, but he could not say where they 
came from. Across the Straits in Calabria, not many miles distant, 
there is a very extensive plain formed by the River Messina and its 
tributary, the Marepotamo, which is a possible source of origin, and 
I should like to explore that district at a future date. When I 
joined my friends at the Campo Imglese, I found four thousand 
soldiers in camp, many of them being engaged in drill, which was 
interesting to watch. 
On May 19th I hurried off to spend three or four days at 
Randazzo, the railway communication being so slow that I did not 
arrive until sunset. At my hotel I met an entomologist from 
Vienna, Herr Carl Hosfer, and he, with his wife, asked to be 
allowed to join me next day. The forenoon was bright and sunny, 
ENTOM.-—MAyY, 1914. N 
