286 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



"In Sunny Spain," by Mrs. Rosa E. Page, B.A. ; 'Entomo- 

 logists' Record,' xxv. p. 33. 



On Thursday, May 8th, we left London, and travelling via 

 Barcelona and Valencia arrived at Albarracin on the following 

 Tuesday. At Barcelona we stayed two nights, and spent a day 

 on the hill of Tibidabo, where, in 1908, I had found the larvas of 

 the very fine Melitaea aurinia var. iberica in great abundance ; 

 the imago should have been flying at the time of our visit, but a 

 careful search did not reveal it, and with the exception of a 

 specimen of Carcharodus baeticus and some not over good 

 examples of Melanargia syllius, we did not see anything worthy 

 of note. 



Beyond Barcelona the journey is a very interesting one ; the 

 Mediterranean is skirted all the way to Valencia, and the last 

 fifty miles or so the railway passes entirely between orange 

 orchards. Just at the time of our visit many of the trees were 

 laden with golden fruit, and all of them were white with 

 blossom, the perfume from which filled the entire country and 

 was almost overpowering. 



A few miles before Valencia is reached the famous old city 

 of Sagunto is passed, the siege of which by Hannibal was the 

 cause of the Second Punic War. At Sagunto the railway branches 

 inland to Tervel, the nearest railhead to Albarracin, passing 

 some very beautiful country and interesting old historical towns. 

 It does not seem, however, very likely ground for butterflies, 

 very few of which were seen en route. 



At Tervel we stayed one night at the station, where there is 

 now an excellent restaurant and good sleeping accommodation ; 

 the next morning we travelled by diligence, which takes six hours 

 or so to reach Albarracin, a distance of about twenty-four miles. 



On our arrival on May 13th the weather was not settled, and 

 the next morning we awoke to find the ground covered with 

 snow; this, however, melted during the day, and it was the only 

 touch of winter we experienced. 



I cannot say that we saw great quantities of lepidoptera ; I 

 question whether such are ever seen at Albarracin, which has an 

 altitude of about 4000 ft., so early in the year ; but it must be 

 borne in mind that last year was an unfavourable season over 

 wide regions in Europe, and I cannot help thinking that this 

 reason was accountable for, at any rate, some of the scarcity of 

 specimens. Whether it was so or not, it is certain that, with the 

 exception of a very few species, butterflies were scarce through- 

 out the whole of our stay. We gathered from certain residents 

 that the season was quite a fortnight later than the average, and 

 this of course would account for a certain proportion of the 

 scarcity. In any case it prevented us making excursions to the 

 higher parts of the sierra, such as Bronchales, Griegos, Guadala- 

 vier, ^c, for if species were not out at 4000 ft., they obviously 



