A BUTTERFLY HUNT IN SOME PARTS OF UNEXPLORED FRANCE. 57 



Lycaenid and Hesperiid " drinking clubs " on the surface damp. 

 They never alighted on the mule-droppings so much affe3ted by 

 mountain Lycaenidae, though P. c-album is not above such attrac- 

 tions ; and in the spring on the Kiviera I have observed that 

 the last-mentioned species is much addicted to the rotten olives 

 left in the orchards from the previous year's harvest. One 

 Sunday afternoon I crossed the bridge here to explore the path 

 through the pine woods, returning along the water channel 

 which diverts a part of the river to supply the farms above 

 Alios. But these woods and slopes yielded nothing beyond 

 swarms of buzzing and biting flies. 



The route now ascends sharply on the right bank to the 

 chalets of Champ Kichard, and then from a narrow gorge of 

 loose slaty formation debouches on a more open valley, where 

 again the newly constructed path separates from the old, and 

 mounts by zigzags through flowery pastures and occasional 

 larch spinneys. When the sun reaches these upper slopes 

 rather late in the morning there is plenty to occupy atten- 

 tion. Coenonympha iphis hardly gives place to C. arcania var. 

 darwiniana ; Plebeiiis argus {agon), much less plentiful than 

 P. argyrognomon, gems with wings of lapis-lazuli the red-gold 

 arnica daisies. Colias phicojnone is everywhere, the females 

 just now in a majority. Males of Erehia stygue, E. goante, and 

 E. tyndarus var. cassioides {■=■ dromus) cross and re-cross the 

 mule track. The larger Argynnids — A. aglaia and A. niobe (all 

 var. eris) — are already sucking the sweet juices of the purple 

 thistles in company with males of Chrysophanus hippothoe var. 

 eurybia and Polyommatus eros. A little higher still E. euryale 

 affects the woods, and the clearings by the roadside are bright 

 with C. virgaurea, P. pheretes (males and females), Pa rnassms 

 apollo, and occasional E. epiphron var. cassiope. About three- 

 quarters of an hour from the last-mentioned bridge a spring 

 empties itself into the torrent ; and here over the saxifrage and 

 thick wet moss P. delius was flying at a safe distance from the 

 net. Once more the road crosses the stream, and zigzags 

 upward through young forests, the nursery of the Maison 

 Forestiere, which now comes into view at a sudden turn. Insects 

 of all orders swarm at this point. The morning is fair and the 

 air delicious with the scent of the many Papilionacese, which 

 make a veritable Field of Cloth of Gold, interwoven with 

 the duller purples of the vetches. A mud-bath hereabouts 

 invites a swarm of P. eros, P. hylas, and Agriades escheri ; 

 Lycc&na avion is rare, even more so P. orbitidus, which, common 

 in the Swiss Alps, never seems abundant in the Basses-Alpes 

 and Alpes Maritimes. Hespena alveus, H. fritilluin {=cirsii, 

 Ebr.), H. carthami, and H. serratula represent the Black-and- 

 White Skippers ; Thymelicus lineola and 2\ actceon the Brown. 

 To the '* Coppers " may now be added C. dorilis var. subalpina 



