THE COLORATION PROBLEMS. 217 
Hirsutina (Lycaena) admetus, Esp. (not ripartit, Frr.), not uncom- 
mon in the late summer. 
Glaucopsyche cyllarus. A couple, May 18th. 
Nisoniades tages var. unicolor, Frr. Hesperids were common in tbe 
blazing sun on bare patches of ground, roads, ete. The only specimen 
I procured is of this form. 
Hererocera were on the whole very scarce. Plusia gamma I noted 
on April 27th and June Ist. Hyles euphorbiae; a larva in the Gully on 
June 2nd (pupated June 4th). One evening at Suvla, in September, 
I saw a young Red-backed Shrike take a hawk-moth (presumably of this 
Species) on the wing and devour it. Sesta (Macroglossa) stellatarwm was 
common throughout the summer and autumn, and on Imbros. 
Micro-Lermoprtera were very scarce indeed in the summer, except 
on May 14th, in the scrub after some showers. They were commoner 
in the autumn. The only specimen identified was Hindrosis fenestrella. 
I was very much surprised never to find any’ Gonepteryxv, though I 
see that Commander Walker reports G. rhamni as ‘‘ scarce.” It is also 
strange that I saw no Huchloé or Melitaea. He found FE. cardamines 
and many species of Melitaea abundantly. The latter may of course 
be restricted to very small areas, and abundant in them. And my 
hunting grounds were not extensive. 
The Coloration Problems. 1. 
By W. PARKINSON CURTIS, F.E.S. 
I don’t quite know what this ought to be called. I think I replied 
to Mr. Colthrup, and he wrote a rejoinder to my reply; so I believe 
that I should call this a “ rebutter.”’ 
It is a very tardy one, I fear, and perhaps some of the readers of 
the Ent. Record may have thought that I had retired from the stricken 
field. Such, however, was not the ease, but fresh ammunition, which 
takes much patience to acquire, was required, and I have had to be 
much longer this time than last at the risk of being wearisome and 
tedious. The arguments pro and contra on the colour problems cannot 
be demolished by a clever repartee or a smart piece of dialectics. Not 
that I think I am likely to indulge (or indeed am capable of indulging) 
in either. I much prefer the slower and heavier bludgeon of fact. 
Facts take time to accumulate, and several things have militated 
severely against this. One thing was my own health, which necessi- 
tated the attentions of the surgeon, and thereafter a somewhat lenethy 
convalescence, which not only pzevented me from being physically 
active in almost every way, but the shock of which necessitated a 
strict obedience to doctor’s orders, “not to do any more brain work 
than absolutely essential” for a time. Another thing was the disloca- 
tion of business arising out of the calamitous conflict into which the 
degenerate mental processes of Germany and her false prophets and 
soothsayers have plunged a peaceful civilization. This latter cause has 
also robbed one of that mental condition of philosophic calm and de- 
tachment so necessary to work of investigation, and at times one has 
vaguely wondered almost in despair whether the results of scientific 
research were not a thing to be abhorred, seeing the base uses 
to which they have been put by a graceless and unholy alliance of 
