THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLVIL] NOVEMBEB, 1914. [No. 618 



THREE WEEKS IN DAUPHINY. 



By H. Rowland-Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 



(i.) La Grave. 



When I left London on a blazing July day, the promise of 

 a successful entomological tour in the mountains south of 

 Grenoble seemed assured. Letters from French correspondents 

 beginning in the spring had prepared me for a great butterfly 

 year : an absence of late frosts, prevalence of sunny skies, and 

 only just the requisite rainfall to encourage the crops from 

 north to south. The factors of success were established — at 

 least, I thought so ; and when I stepped into the P. L. M. motor 

 outside Grenoble station on the morning of the 11th, there was 

 not a cloud even the size of a man's hand in the sky of the 

 Midi or on the visible political horizon. In April, when I had had 

 the privilege of addressing the Entomological Society of France 

 at their annual banquet, and at a moment when Paris was 

 celebrating the visit of our King and Queen, I ventured to suggest, 

 *'heureusement pour nous autres, les chevaliers de la Nature, 

 la politique n'existe pas." I little thought how soon and in 

 how sudden fashion the welter of European politics was to engulf 

 the comity of nations, and how the waves of a great war were 

 to sweep over the quiet haunts where in former years I had 

 wandered in search of butterflies. To-day, after three months 

 of storm and stress, the calm Alpine valleys, thick with corn ; 

 the mountain pastures, a wonder of flowers ; the restful villages — 

 all are as a dream to the reality of which the little harvest of 

 my cabinets alone may testify. 



This part of the Dauphiny Alps has been worked for many 

 years by English lepidopterists ; less systematically by the 

 French, though, needless to say, the indefatigable M. Charles 

 Oberthiir has taken toll of the district ; while it was one of Dr. 

 Reverdin's observations {in litt.) on the occurrence of Erebia 

 scipio at Monetier-les-Bains, on the southern side of the Col 

 de Lauteret, which tempted me to include a week there in my 

 programme. In the ' Entomologist's Record ' (vol. viii. 1896 ; 

 ix. 1897) the late Mr. Tutt gives an exhaustive account of a visit 

 to Le Lauteret and La Grave during the first weeks of August. 



ENTOM. NOVEMBER, 1914. 2 A 



