FIVE WEEKS IN THE VOSGES. 83 



was much in evidence, sunning itself on the walls and rocks, 

 but it was so battered and torn that it was not possible to find 

 specimens of cabinet rank, and we had to defer the capture of a 

 series until we visited the summits of the mountains, where it 

 was in more presentable condition. Issoria lathonia, after the 

 manner of its kind, was seen to settle on the dusty road and 

 fell a prey to the net. Crossing some marshy meadows below 

 the forester's house on the Plain du Canon, Brenthis ino was 

 found flying among the more plentiful Melitcea athalia. Eugonia 

 jjolychloros was first taken on June 29th, and July 1st 

 we visited the lower slopes of the Ballon de Servance, 

 a locality which proved afterwards to be our most prolific 

 hunting-ground. On an uncultivated piece of hillside, where the 

 children were busy picking whortleberries, we first made 

 acquaintance with Erehia ligea, each of us catching two of 

 them. This insect was subsequently found flying in sunny 

 places at all elevations above the meadows which extend up to 

 the forest zone, and also on the open summits of the higher 

 mountains. 



In the southern section of the Vosges are found the most 

 lofty peaks in the range, rising to a height of four or five thou- 

 sand feet, the average altitude of the hills being about three 

 thousand feet. These high points are called Ballons. Towering 

 above St. Maurice are two of the most important of these forest- 

 clad heights. The huge granitic mass of the Ballon de Servance, 

 projecting into the valley and forcing the Moselle to turn north 

 westwards almost at a right angle, rises boldly above the village 

 and forms a watershed, the drainage on the one side being gener- 

 ally northwards through the Moselle and other tributaries of the 

 Rhine into the North Sea, while on the opposite side of the 

 divide the streams flow southward to the Mediterranean. There 

 are forests of beech and fir on the slopes, and above them 

 rise the rounded grassy summits almost bare of trees or bushes, 

 the haunt of Erehia stygne and E. ligea. On July 2nd we took 

 advantage of a motor car which runs from the station to the 

 hotel near the summit of the Ballon d'Alsace. Arriving soon 

 after ten we started to climb to the highest point, across which 

 runs the frontier line. Hundreds of E. stygne, mostly in first- 

 class condition, were flying in the grass despite the strong wind 

 which was blowing, and a very good series was soon secured. A 

 fine male iris, scudding along with the wind at a great pace, was 

 taken by me on the French side of the frontier line, and while I 

 was busy with it Mr. Barraud took a fresh female of Limenitis 

 populi var. tremulce. Subsequently I chased what I believed to 

 be L. populi at Charmes on July 30th, but as I did not succeed 

 in catching it that locality must not be recorded. After lunch 

 the wind dropped a little, and we spent some time in a sheltered 



h2 



