12 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. XV 



procured, but to get a few miserable boxes required wild ges- 

 ticulating and repeated glances at my guide book, "The Amer- 

 ican Soldier in France," which was written for ordinary use but 

 did not meet the needs of an entomologist. Empty cardboard 

 boxes seemed to be an unknown article and it was with the great- 

 est difficulty that he was persuaded to dump out some buttons and 

 pins, after which I was charged a price worthy of the reputation 

 the storekeepers had made for themselves with the soldiers. 



On November 15, I set out for the town of Bligny which is 

 some eight miles north of Bar-sur-Aube. This section is very 

 beautiful and wild for France and while quite hilly it is not ex- 

 actly mountainous. The brooks are clear and unpolluted although 

 passing through many towns and the country, thickly dotted with 

 small villages, is clean and fresh without any trace of the rubbish 

 heaps so common in our own land. The forests are dense and 

 consist chiefly of deciduous trees but there is a fair sprinkling 

 of pines and evergreens. A large lumber camp close by and run 

 by the government which supervises all the cutting of timber 

 owing to its great scarcity, would no doubt have furnished excel- 

 lent collecting during the summer. In the wooded areas, a thick, 

 velvety carpet of moss covers the ground, while lichens grow 

 everywhere on rocks, trees, and small bushes in great profusion. 

 Bunches of mistletoe are very plentiful among the higher 

 branches of trees and snails of all sizes and many species are 

 common in damp localities. 



The weather never gets so extremely cold as in our North- 

 eastern States and their November corresponds with our October, 

 During the fall and winter it rains literally weeks at a time con- 

 verting the country into one big mud puddle. The days are quite 

 warm (on December 12 the temperature registered 80° for a 

 short time, but this is of course exceptional) ; however the nights 

 are chilly and the very heavy frosts make the vegetation look in 

 the morning as if it were covered with glass. There are insects 

 flying all the year round, such as Tipulidse, Eristalis tenax, certain 

 Hemiptera and Coleoptera, etc. Coccinellidse may be found 

 among the pine needles, crickets can be heard on warm sunny 

 days throughout the winter, while grasshoppers appear very much 

 alive in the always green grasses. 



