150 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



quite an hour. Nor could it be said to have been altogether 

 wasted, though butterflies were remarkable more for their 

 quantity than their quality. Every bush was alive with Limenitis 

 sibylla ; up and down the narrow path leading to a wide clearing 

 dashed males of Apatura iris, extremely difficult to net here- 

 abouts ; and Dryas paphia, A. adippe, Melitcea athalia, and 

 Pararge egeria var. egerides literally swarmed. In the clearings, 

 too, there was an abundance of Anthrocerids, chiefly A . hippo- 

 crepidis, A. scabiosce, and A. vicice (meliloti). Lycsenids were not 

 common. I only noted in the whole day one Eusticus argyro- 

 gnomon, two or three Everes argiades, and occasional specimens 

 of Polyommatus icarus and Celastrina argiolus. Adopcea sylvanus 

 and A. lineola were, however, in full force, while on the road it 

 was curious to observe the hibernated Vanessa io flying with 

 freshly emerged Pyrameis atalanta and Polygonia c-album. 

 Leaving this byway and regaining the main road, I presently 

 struck the house of the Forester, and here the ways again 

 diverge, a cart-track to the left leading to the heart of the forest, 

 round the edge of a great marsh, that to the right (where there 

 is a fine fountain, and the only drinking water available) leading 

 up in the same direction, but on the further side of the marsh. 

 I had hardly entered the wood when I realised the sovereignty of 

 the Apaturids in all their splendour. Innumerable A. ilia, mostly 

 typical, but some of the ab. clytie, all males, were running over 

 the little moist patches on the sandy paths, or jostling one 

 another from the mule-droppings. A. iris was quite as frequent 

 and pugnacious, while everywhere the graceful L. sibylla, and, 

 rather more rarely, L. Camilla, gleamed in the sunny glades. 

 And presently I was aware of yet another of this lovely group — 

 that Limenitis popidi which I had sought and seen, but never 

 taken, in the forests of the Aisne. This butterfly is very 

 soon battered. I took six or seven males during the day, and 

 liberated them all as in one way or another defective ; the only 

 perfect example escaped from the net. In much the same 

 localities, on the grassy wayside banks, I took quite a decent 

 series of that other Samoussy speciality, Melitcea matuma ; but 

 this also was on the wane. Of the Satyrids, Pararge achine 

 still survived ; P. megcera and A2)hantojms hyperanthus were fresh, 

 and also Coenonympha arcania, the one or two C. iphis netted 

 being, on the contrary, in rags. Common also were Aporia 

 cratcegi, Leptosia sinapis, Gonepteryx rhamni, and Aglais urticce, 

 while the privet blossoms, beloved of matuma, yielded Strymon 

 ilicis, and one or two very fine S. pruni. I had intended a 

 second visit to the forest, or should have worked much more 

 sedulously than I did. With regard to C. var. rutilus, I was 

 informed by two Viennese entomologists I met on the way home 

 that, though not unusual in some other suburban places, the 

 Rohrbach district was not regarded as a favoured locality. Com* 



