A BUTTERFLY HUNT IN SOME PARTS OF UNEXPLORED FRANCE. 59 



fairly plentiful. Except a few shabby Cassioides and the 

 ubiquitous C. phicomone, there was nothing to tempt me from 

 the rock behind which, and sheltered from the keen wind, I dis- 

 posed of my lunch. So I devoted the greater part of the time 

 on each occasion to Alecto-Duponcheli. 



July 2'2nd, the hottest day of the month, I spent working 

 down the Verdon river-bed, which, in the customary way of 

 Alpine torrent streams, breaks up into many subsidiary chan- 

 nels, leaving broad stony islets covered with dwarf willow, 

 lavender, Epilohium angustiflorum, great clumps of Astragalus 

 alpinus (?), and tangled vetches, with occasional tufts of wild 

 thyme. The lavender was especially affected by A. escheri, 

 P. argyrognomon, and females of C. alciphron var. gordius, the 

 latter in poor condition, while Anthrocera fausta gleamed Ver- 

 million- winged in equal abundance with A. carniolica. The 

 steep cliffs of the right bank, however, disclosed no E. scipio, as 

 I had hoped, after a long search for a ford waded knee-deep 

 through spring-cold water. A rare pool for trout at all events ; 

 and trout is the piece de resistance of every meal in these delec- 

 table mountains. Keturning to the causeway at the end of the 

 long poplar avenue, which extends for a mile or so, the valley 

 once more opens out, and on the left bank, where the old road 

 follows the course of the river, there is a sun-burnt stretch of 

 waste land with sparse berberis bushes, mullein, and again some 

 fine lavender in full bloom. T. action, A. thersites and Issoria 

 lathonia were the principal visitors ; on the dusty upper road 

 Satyrus circe was flying with S. alcyone, but very little besides, 

 and it was not until I was well in sight of Colmars itself that 

 I could get a draught of drinking water at a hospitable farm- 

 house, in the garden of which the ripe red currants hung in 

 luscious clusters. 



The neighbouring lucerne fields were gay with Colias edusa 

 and C. hyale, but so great was the heat of the afternoon that at 

 two o'clock I boarded the P.L.M. motor and was quickly rushed 

 back to Alios. Above the village and right up to the Col there 

 is very little promising ground. The slopes on this side are 

 mostly disafforested and grazed close. I tried not to think that 

 the few Erebias I saw from the car, when on my journey of the 

 24th to Barcelonnette, were E. scipio. I am now sure they 

 were not — only stygne. 



I have been asked where, in my Continental wanderings, I 

 have found butterflies in the greatest profusion. It is not an 

 easy question to answer, for " distance lends enchantment to 

 the view " of most entomologists when the time arrives to survey 

 in retrospect the happy hunting grounds of the past. I am 

 inclined to think that certain stages of the road to the Lac 

 d'Allos I have attempted to describe come nearest to El Dorado. 

 Then follow the Eaux Thermales valley at Digne, in June; 



