BIO THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



females, the majority of which latter unfortunately fell victims to 

 the mobilisation generale. P. orhituliis was hardly out. H. alveus 

 and H. serratulcs were fairly common ; H. carlince were repre- 

 sented hy individual males. 



On the 26th in the afternoon, after two sunny days, I did not 

 see a single butterfly. At about 8000 ft. it was sleeting 

 miserably. The day before, encouraged by a clear blue sky, and 

 the apparent distance of the mountains dazzling with new 

 fallen snow, I trudged off to the Club Alpine (6955 ft.) on the 

 Lauteret side of the Col d'Arsine. The path leads up parallel 

 for some distance with the road to La Grave through pastures 

 of peerless beauty, knee-deep in columbines, campanulas, and 

 white anemones, reminiscent of MacWhirter's masterpiece in the 

 Tate Gallery, "June in the Austrian Tyrol." A fine butterfly 

 ground in calmer \seather; but, alas! to-day the wind shrilled 

 higher than ever, effectually keeping everything level with the 

 herbage. Out of the wind in a deep gully turning up the last of the 

 valley of the Eomanche I watched PamassiMS delius flying over the 

 saxifrage, and every now and again the favoured yellow crucifer 

 would be visited by A. simplonia. Once over the brim of the 

 hill they disappeared before the wind like magic. A secluded 

 meadow near at hand afforded covert to a rather faded race of 

 MelitcBa aurinia var. merope ; and here P. argus, C. hijjpothoe 

 var. euryhia, and P. hylas were flitting with Coononympha iphis, 

 P. medon, and the usual host of small Erebias. But once 

 beyond this shelter and on to the Kefuge Hut there was 

 nothing except an occasional Argynnis niohe, and swarms of 

 Anthrocera exulans. Careful search for H. andrcmedcB was 

 unrewarded, but I have little doubt than in less boisterous 

 weather I should have repeated the successes of La Grave. 

 Near the Hut there is an abundance of Dryas octopetala. On the 

 28th, despairing of an improvement, I left reluctantly for 

 Monetier-les-Bains, where I found comfortable quarters and 

 homely comforts with many agreeable French visitors at the 

 Hotel de I'Europe, kept by M. Izoard, a famous Dauphiny 

 guide of his day, and a veteran of " Soixante-dix." 



(iii.) Monetier-les-Bains. 

 As I walked down, back to the wind, from Le Lauteret on 

 another day, blustering and cold as March, visions of Erebia 

 scipio at warmer Monetier rose before my eyes. A single 

 specimen on the Col de Larche last year — the sum total of five 

 separate years' hunt — had scarcely satisfied my appetite for 

 the chase. Dr. Eeverdin had informed me of its existence in 

 quantities at Monetier; Mrs. Nicholl, that indefatigable pioneer 

 of British collectors in Spain, in Bosnia, in the Balkans, and 

 in Dauphiny, had advised me of its presence at Vallouise, no 

 great distance away as the crow flies. When just a quarter of an 



