62 THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S RECORD. 



partially surrounded and sheltered by a belt of firs and pines of 

 various sorts, where I again took Erebia epiphron and here captured 

 the type as well as the variety cassiope, as also the hospita form of 

 Paraseuria plantaginis. On another day we went to the Puy de Sancy 

 6,185 feet high, and the highest mountain in Central France. My 

 wife remained in the meadows at the immediate foot, whilst I made a 

 most interesting ascent, Brenthis euphrosyne was quite fresh and I took my 

 first Colias croceus (edusa) in this district, but as I mounted higher insects 

 became scarcer and soon Psodos quadrifaria put in an appearance, the 

 first herald of the approach to Alpine conditions. E. epiphron was of 

 course again on the wing, and soon after I encountered the first small 

 patch of snow, and on rounding the shoulder of an outlying buttress 

 there lay in front of me and above a great mass of some largish yellow 

 flower that was too far off to decipher though it was a lovely sight 

 gleaming in the sun, but it was not long before I crossed the rocky 

 intervening distance and then I found a meadow of daffodils in full 

 flower, the deeper yellow cup being quite hidden by the primrose 

 leaves of the calyx until one came quite close, after this more and 

 more abundantly did they appear up to perhaps 5,000 feet or there- 

 abouts, but above this they gradually became scarcer and scarcer, and 

 the true Alpine flowers began slowly to show themselves ; it was 

 indeed a pleasure to see Gentiana acaulis after so many years absence 

 from the higher Alps. Parasemia plantaginis and its white form 

 hospita soon fell to my net, both taken near together, but as I neared 

 the summit butterflies disappeared with the exception of a stray 

 Aglais urticae, which I captured for the sake of the locality. Then 

 came the final stony stretch leading to the top, from whence a 

 splendid view is obtained north and south, and east and west. Here, 

 right on the summit and also on the knife edge southern ridge and 

 just below it was one of those clouds of ants we occasionally 

 see in their winged state, which settled temporarily on one by 

 the dozen ; all around the swifts were busy in very large 

 numbers, and so intent were they on the abundance of food 

 that they were quite regardless of my presence ; to and fro in 

 silence they winged their way, ever and anon circling around 

 me, and so close did they often fly that the movement of the 

 air was quite perceptible on my cheeks as their wings clove the air 

 "en passant." Anemones were abundant immediately below the 

 summit, an occasional sulphur one past its b j st was now and then 

 seen, but the white were in abundance, some going over and others in 

 all stages of growth, so that they made me quite rejoice at once again 

 being in an Alpine region. The stay, however, was too short and the 

 region too small to procure the wished for Alpine fauna, and so 

 reluctantly the descent had to be made and nothing fresh was added 

 to my list except more hlrebia stygne and Adopaea flava (thainnas), 

 together with one or two species of the Botydae. 



Another day was devoted to the Pic du Capucin, up the first few 

 hundred feet of which a funicular railway is run to the fashionable 

 tea gardens of the locality, where a small pasture beautifully 

 surrounded by wooded eminences is turned into skating rinks, and 

 caf6 restaurants and all sorts of temptations wherein to wile away your 

 time and part with your money — and my wife preferred to rest un^er 

 the pleasant shade of the trees whilst I faced the sun to complete the 



