NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 155 



emerged specimen of galatea Hying most erratically, and a few blues 

 and skippers. 



I decided to return to Messina from Palermo by easy stages 

 along the north coast, and finding that a motor-omnibus runs daily 

 from Termini Imerese (twenty-three miles from Palermo) inland to 

 Nicosia, &c., I caught an early train (5.45) with a view to getting a 

 ride to the foot of one of the Madonie Mountains. The motor was 

 waiting at the station, filled already with passengers, so my plan 

 failed. Then I decided to climb the hill at the back of Termini 

 Imerese, and somehow was wrongly directed, so that I found myself 

 in a labyrinth of paths in the vineyards, and in consequence of the 

 intense heat in the middle of the day I never reached the unculti- 

 vated top region at all. I saw numerous specimens of podalirius, 

 viachaon, edusa, cleopatra (male and female), daplidice, ausonia, 

 cardamines, and other species common to the vineyard district, but 

 nothing novel. About five o'clock I struck the mule track which I 

 ought to have taken going out, and was able to get back to the town 

 in a very short time. Here there is a magnificent hotel in connec- 

 tion with the Baths (Hotel de Bagnes), with a grand marble stair- 

 case, fine bedrooms with ante-rooms for washing, table d'hote, and 

 every comfort at moderate cost (I made a note of this). 



The following morning (May 28th) I caught the early train, and 

 arrived at San Stefano di Camastra (fifty miles) at 7.30 a.m. I had 

 planned to take the motor-omnibus to Mistrella, six miles distant, 

 and return on foot. Again there was not a seat vacant. Again I 

 never reached the top of the hill owing to the intense heat. The 

 industry of the town is the manufacture of earthenware jars of all sizes 

 and shapes; also bricks and tiles; while the flowers on the waste 

 places adjoining the works were very attractive to the butterflies 

 named yesterday, and I also took Polyommatus astrarche, Spilothyrus 

 altkecB and Hesperia sao. Burnet moths were also plentiful. Hotel 

 accommodation and meals were quite Sicilian, and certainly in- 

 expensive. 



San Stefano lies west of the Forest of Caronia, whence it obtains 

 brushwood for its kilns ; the next station is Caronia itself. On 

 May 29th I reached Caronia station early, hoping to get a ghmpse of 

 the forest. The village (or rather big town of 20,000 inhabitants) 

 is four miles up the mountain, and on reaching it I found there 

 was no decent place to sleep at, and the only food I could get was 

 fried eggs, cold beans, and bread, at a dirty wine-shop, so I gave up 

 the idea of the forest and returned to the station in time to catch the 

 evening train to Sant' Agatha, the next town. On my way down in 

 the afternoon I struck a wide provincial road, where I captured fresh 

 galatea, several Vanessa c-alhum, also V. egea, and a fresh specimen 

 of Argynnis cleodoxa. I reached Sant' Agatha after dark, and there 

 the sleeping accommodation and food were of a very primitive and 

 inexpensive character. I returned to Messina on May 30th, and I 

 have not quite given up the idea of a visit to the Forest of Caronia 

 and a trip in the Sicihan long-distance motor-omnibuses, which are 

 not run for profit, but for the convenience of the residents. 



I found the heat at Messina very trying, and several picnic 

 parties we made up in June proved entomological failures, as it was 



