NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 155 
emerged specimen of galatea flying most erratically, and a few blues 
and skippers. 
I decided to return to Messina from Palermo by easy stages 
along the north coast, and finding that a motor-omnibus runs daily 
from Termini Imerese (twenty-three miles from Palermo) inland to 
Nicosia, &c., I caught an early train (5.45) with a view to getting a 
ride to the foot of one of the Madonie Mountains. The motor was 
waiting at the station, filled already with passengers, so my plan 
failed. Then I decided to climb the hill at the back of Termini 
Imerese, and somehow was wrongly directed, so that I found myself 
in a labyrinth of paths in the vineyards, and in consequence of the 
intense heat in the middle of the day I never reached the unculti- 
vated top region at all. I saw numerous specimens of podalirius, 
machaon, edusa, cleopatra (male and female), daplidice, ausonia, 
cardamines, and other species common to the vineyard district, but 
nothing novel. About five o’clock I struck the mule track which I 
ought to have taken going out, and was abie to get back to the town 
in a very short time. Here there is a magnificent hotel in connec- 
tion with the Baths (Hétel de Bagnes), with a grand marble stair- 
case, fine bedrooms with ante-rooms for washing, table d’héte, and 
every comfort at moderate cost (I made a note of this). 
The following morning (May 28th) I caught the early train, and 
arrived at San Stefano di Camastra (fifty miles) at 7.30 a.m. I had 
planned to take the motor-omnibus to Mistrella, six miles distant, 
and return on foot. Again there was nota seat vacant. Again I 
never reached the top of the hill owing to the intense heat. The 
industry of the town is the manufacture of earthenware jars of all sizes 
and shapes; also bricks and tiles; while the flowers on the waste 
places adjoining the works were very attractive to the butterflies 
named yesterday, and I also took Polyommatus astrarche, Spilothyrus 
althee and Hesperia sao. Burnet moths were also plentiful. Hotel 
accommodation and meals were quite Sicilian, and certainly in- 
expensive. 
San Stefano lies west of the Forest of Caronia, whence it obtains 
brushwood for its kilns; the next station is Caronia itself. On 
May 29th I reached Caronia station early, hoping to get a glimpse of 
the forest. The village (or rather big town of 20,000 inhabitants) 
is four miles up the mountain, and on reaching it I found there 
was no decent place to sleep at, and the only food I could get was 
fried eggs, cold beans, and bread, at a dirty wine-shop, so I gave up 
the idea of the forest and returned to the station in time to catch the 
evening train to Sant’ Agatha, the next town. On my way down in 
the afternoon I struck a wide provincial road, where I captured fresh 
galatea, several Vanessa c-album, also V. egea, and a fresh specimen 
of Argynnis cleodoxa. I reached Sant’ Agatha after dark, and there 
the sleeping accommodation and food were of a very primitive and 
inexpensive character. I returned to Messina on May 30th, and I 
have not quite given up the idea of a visit to the Forest of Caronia 
and a trip in the Sicilian long-distance motor-omnibuses, which are 
not run for profit, but for the convenience of the residents. 
I found the heat at Messina very trying, and several picnic 
parties we made up in June proved entomological failures, as if was 
