10 



set in much earlier than it often does in England, yet by the time 

 mid-May was reached the heat was much in excess of that of our 

 hot July days. This continuity of advance added a very great 

 charm to Spring. Every day we saw something fresh. One could 

 almost see the green veil of foliage spreading over the trees, one 

 could almost hear the flower buds burst into blossom. And then 

 great is the joy of being in a country with whose Fauna and Flora 

 one is not well acquainted. One is constantly greeting old friends 

 in the way of animals and plants and mentally saying, "Oh, you 

 are here too ! " On the other hand the naturalist, when in a 

 strange country, is also constantly meeting with grand surprises, 

 and is as pleased with them as the old English aurelians were with 

 l\ mmnessa antiopa. 



On the 1st February, the day we arrived at Gries, there was still 

 snow in the sheltered corners, and some of the brooks were still 

 frozen over. We had just left Innsbruck, still in the grip of winter, 

 but here, in Gries, the power of winter was already broken, and 

 the earth was throwing off her white mantle. The next day we 

 went up the Archduke's walk, and there met with the first insect 

 (except Diptera) that we had seen. This was a rather bedraggled 

 arctiid larva, probably taking his first airing after hibernation. On 

 February 4th we saw the first lizard, found cases of Taleporia 

 tiibulnsa on some rocks, and heather in bloom. We went up the 

 Virgl by the railway or lift Avhence one obtains a fine view of the 

 town and surrounding valley. On the pine trees we found a great 

 many nests of the proeessionary caterpillar, Thatimetojioea pityn- 

 caiii/ia. They seemed particularly fond of the younger trees, and 

 made them look very unsightly. When these nests occur on trees 

 in gardens, they are burnt with torches, but no one seems to take 

 any trouble with them when they occur on trees growing on 

 common land. Many of the pine trees had bunches of mistletoe 

 growing on them. I do not remember seeing this plant on pine 

 before. In this wood it was very common, but always on pine 

 though there were many other trees on which it might have grown. 



In one part of the Archduke's walk there was a wall of rock 

 facing the south and covered with a large plant of yellow jasmine. 

 In February this was one of the favourite haunts of that large and 

 handsome bee, Xylocopa violacea. This is as large as our largest 

 humble bee and of a deep violet black. The beautiful contrast 

 afforded by the yellow blossoms of the jasmine and the rich violet 

 of the bees as they hovered over the flowers in the sunshine, was 

 one not easily to be forgotten. The flight of this bee is not quite 

 like that of our humble bees, but reminds me sometimes of the 

 flight of .SV.sm [MacrnyloMa) atellataniin. During our stay we saw, 

 naturally, many kinds of hymenopterous insects, but nothing that 

 appeared out of the common. < 



The only hemipterous creature that forced its attention on us, 

 was, I am glad to say, not one to cause us any personal incon- 



