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A FORTNIGHT'S COLLECTING AT BUDAPEST. 

 By W. E. Nicholson. 



In the early part of last summer, in company with my friend 

 Mr. F. C. Lemann, I spent a fortnight at Budapest, during 

 which time we did a little collecting among the butterflies of the 

 neighbourhood ; and although our results were not remarkable 

 from a collecting point of view, yet I have thought that a few 

 notes on the district might possibly be of some interest. 



After a very pleasant journey down the Danube from Passau 

 on the Austrian frontier, steaming under many a ruined castle, as 

 on the Rhine, still crowning some precipitous rock, we arrived in 

 Vienna on the 5th June, where we spent a couple of days in 

 seeing the city. Among other places we visited the New Natural 

 History Museum on the Ringstrasse, where we met with great 

 courtesy from Herr Rogenhofer, the curator of the entomological 

 section, who showed us over the collections. Especially note- 

 worthy were the number of well-preserved life-histories of lepi- 

 dopterous insects, the larvae in various stages and the pupse being 

 mounted on dried specimens of the food-plant. 



We left Vienna on the afternoon of the 7th June, arriving at 

 Budapest the same evening, where I remained until the 21st, Mr. 

 Lemaun staying for a few days longer. The day after our 

 arrival we spent in seeing the sights of the city, which was in 

 full gala on account of the festivities in connection with the 

 Emperor's Jubilee. We also called on Herr Pavel, an entomo- 

 logist attached to the Museum, to whom Herr Rogenhofer had 

 given us an introduction, and who afterwards proved very useful 

 in guiding us to the good localities. 



The neighbourhood of Budapest, at first sight, does not look 

 a very promising field for a collector. The country on the left 

 bank of the Danube, where the more modern town of Pest is 

 built, is exceedingly flat, the great central plain of Hungary, so 

 productive of corn, stretching away as far as the eye can reach to 

 the north and east, the Carpathians being only visible on the 

 horizon on a very clear day, half hidden in a blue haze of 

 distance. On the right bank of the river, however, the country 

 is more varied. The old town of Buda, or Ofen as it is called by 

 the Germans, is principally built against a ridge of hill which is 

 crowned by the king's palace ; while still further to the west is a 

 series of low mountains, beautifully wooded in most places. It 

 was consequently to this side of the river that our collecting 

 expeditions were principally directed. 



The climate of Budapest, as the papers have recently testified, 

 is of the extreme Continental type, and the temperature, even in 

 the summer, is liable to considerable variation. When we first 

 arrived we found it too cold to be pleasant, when waiting in the 



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