Feb., 1920 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 11 



OBSERVATIONS MADE AROUND BAR-SUR-AUBE, 



FRANCE, WITH A LIST OF THE CARABID^ 



FOUND THERE. 



By Alan S. Nicolay, New Brunswick, N. J. 



A member of the American Expeditionary Force is not usually 

 in a position to give much time to anything but his war duties 

 and when I sailed for France I had reconciled my mind to the fact 

 that entomology must be forgotten until the fracas was over. 

 The day of the armistice (November 11, 1918) found me in Bar- 

 sur-Aube which is some seventy miles back of Verdun and in 

 what was called "the advanced section." This town lies on the 

 River Aube which is a branch of the famous Marne and after the 

 armistice was used for a time as the headquarters of the First 

 American Army. 



We hung around a few days awaiting orders and finally I was 

 picked to go to one of the many small villages in the vicinity and 

 billet troops returning from the trenches. I was to live with a 

 French family and except for seeing to it that the troops were 

 properly quartered- when they remained over night my time was 

 pretty much my own. This struck me as an excellent opportunity 

 to get in a little collecting and part of the time I was given to 

 stock up with supplies (one can buy absolutely nothing in the 

 average French village), I devoted to getting a few things neces- 

 sary to the handling of Coleoptera. As all my earthly possessions 

 were carried in a blanket roll on my back, there was no possibility 

 of taking along anything but a few small boxes. Having great 

 respect for army courts martial, I refrained from using cyanide 

 and substituted chloroform. Even this I had difficulty in getting 

 as the druggists were not allowed to sell it without a doctor's 

 certificate, but I finally persuaded him to let me have a little. 

 More trouble still was met with when attempting to impress on 

 him with the help of my meager knowledge of French, that I de- 

 sired some flannel and small cardboard boxes. The first article 

 being the same in the French language as the English was readily 



