150 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



to the shrine of St. Amadour were golden with a tiny dwarf 

 hawkweed. But machaon I did not meet with, though P. poda- 

 lirius was almost the first butterfly to greet me, with a plenty of 

 Gonepteryx cleopatra, G. rhamni, some immense Pieris brassica, 

 Pontia daplidice var. bellidice, Anthocharis belia, and a number of 

 Colias edusa and C. hyale, of which latter species I was particu- 

 larly anxious to observe the female in the act of ovipositing ; but 

 for some perverse reason all the hyale here appeared to be males. 

 In addition, I also noted fresh Pararge megcera, and one P. mora, 

 with occasional C. phlceas, Polyommatus icarus, Nisoniades tages, 

 and one or two hybernated Eugonias polychloros flying over the 

 bay-trees in the chapel garden. But above on the causse, or 

 plateau land, and during a drive of some two miles or more to 

 the nearest station, though the day was brilliantly fine, there was 

 nothing on the wing. Indeed, the barren rocky wastes, grazed 

 (?) by sheep of the type familiar to the Noah's ark of our child- 

 hood, and the origin of the heady Boquefort cheeses, were 

 suggestive of anything but an abundant butterfly fauna. 



After leaving Eocamadour my entomological diary received 

 no additions worth recording for some days. The weather became 

 cool, overcast, and windy, than which climatic conditions there 

 are none more trying to the patience and the temper of the 

 collector. From Albi I moved on to Toulouse, where it poured in- 

 cessantly, and from Toulouse I passed on to Montpellier, intending 

 to collect for a day or two in a country which appears to have 

 been somewhat carefully investigated by French collectors about 

 thirty or forty years ago. The weather, however, was again 

 abominable, though I had a lovely day at Carcassone (May 6th), 

 where I noticed, in the dry moat of the famous Cite, a few speci- 

 mens of Carcharodus althcece, and P. podalirius not uncommon 

 over the sloe-bushes. My first successful day, indeed, did not 

 come before the 10th, when I found myself on the voiture 

 publique, which conveys tourists to and from the Pont du Gard 

 to Eemoulins Station, reached from Avignon. But the back- 

 wardness of the season was very apparent as soon as I had dis- 

 mounted and unfurled my net for a preliminary hunt in the 

 little glens, and on the undulating waste lands which lie to the 

 south-west of the Gardon. The forest-trees were as yet hardly in 

 leaf. But all the slopes were glorified by great streams of full- 

 flowering asphodel, flowing and overflowing from the sunny 

 uplands, and a tall yellow Senecio. It was, however, in the 

 valleys that such butterflies as I found occurred, and among 

 them Thais var. medesicaste, males for the most part, and in 

 absolutely fresh condition. Euchloe euphenoides, very small, 

 both male and female, were flitting about the biscutella plants, 

 with here and there an occasional E. cardamines. Melitcea cinxia 

 also was well to the fore and fine, and a few Leucophasia sinapis. 

 But, to my complete surprise, when I crossed the bridge and 



