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JAN 9 1901 



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JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. XII. No. 12. Decembek 15th, 1900. 



Over Three Passes— the Splugen, the Stelvio, and the Brenner — 

 with some notes on the Butterflies by the way. 



By H. EOWLAND BEOWN, M.A., F.E.S. 

 After an exceptionally wet June, the prospect of a little tour 

 abroad in search of butterflies was more than usually pleasant this 

 year, but it is a fact that when I left England on July 3rd for Bale, I 

 also left the best of the weather behind me, and rarely did I come 

 across any heat which might be called abnormal during the ensuing 

 five weeks. True, we had some baking days on the approaches to the 

 Stelvio, and the nine hours' diligence ride from Sondrio to Bormio — a 

 distance of 41 miles — for the most part, along a sweltering plain, will 

 live long in my memory for the leisurely discomfort of the overloaded 

 coach and the myriad flies. My wanderings led me, however, into 

 many pleasant spots over the Splugen, the Stelvio, and the Brenner, 

 and at Trafoi and Brenner I found hunting-grounds full of possi- 

 bilities which I had unfortunately too little time to develop. July 4th 

 found me at Thusis, and the next day I unfurled my net and started 

 on foot for the village of Splugen, an enjoyable walk through the Via 

 Mala and much picturesque scenery. The first insects to greet me in 

 the morning were early Erebias — lii/ea, eurycde, and stygne — all in 

 grand condition, while in the town itself Papilio machaon was making 

 a brave show by the most unsavoury of the many puddles left by 

 yesterday's rain. My subsequent experience of this splendid insect 

 confirms the observations of Wocke recorded in Frey's Lepidopteren 

 der Schweiz, for I found it flying in the Chiesa valley on the one side, 

 and high on the Stelvio, a good 500ft. or more above Franzenshohe, 

 the Austrian customs' house, 7,180ft. above the sea level. Individually, 

 I could detect but little difference between the Alpine examples and 

 the fenland form from Cambridgeshire. Perhaps the colouring was a 

 little paler, but certainly in size my mountain specimens exceeded the 

 largest British-caught in my cabinet. Once out of the Via Mala the 

 country opens out, with little bits of marshy ground and green 

 meadows beside the road to tempt frequent deviations and excursions 

 from the beaten track, and an ever beautiful retrospect of pine-clad 

 hills and misty distance. Looking over my diary it would seem as 

 though each separate day on the march produced one insect con- 

 spicuously more abundant than the rest. Here it was Plebeius argus, 

 spangling the road wherever there was a little moisture collected, or 

 flitting restlessly over the reedy hollows ; on the other side of the pass 



