AMONG TPIE BUTTERFLIES IN CORSICA. 2J)7 



At 4.50 we took train to Vizzavona, a mountain resort about 

 three hours from Ajaccio and 4000 ft. above sea-level. The so- 

 called " macchie " is with us neai'ly all the way. It is a mixture 

 of low shrubs with which the slopes are thickly clothed up to 

 about 3000 ft., the chief ingredients being Erica arborea, Myrtus 

 communis, Junipei'us communis, Arbutus unedo, a species of 

 Cytisus no longer in flower, Cistus monspeliensis, and C. albiduSy 

 of the former of which Napoleon said he should know his native 

 land with his eyes shut from the scent of this plant; and, indeed, 

 wherever we went the air was filled with its aromatic perfume. 

 Conspicuous also in the clearings is the stately Asphodelus albus, 

 with its towering spike of white flowers; the more lowly but 

 sweet-scented Pancratium maritimum, the ubiquitous Cyclamen 

 europcBum, and the large rose-coloured Convolvulus althceoides. 

 We soon leave the olive and the ilex behind. They are replaced 

 by chestnuts of enormous girth, then beech and the Lariccio pine, 

 the former frequently growing at a higher altitude than the 

 latter, and lastly, higher than either, Juniperas nana and a 

 stunted alder. The line makes tremendous zigzags as we 

 ascend, and it seems more than likely that we shall topple over 

 into one of the little red-roofed villages so jauntily perched on a 

 promontory beneath, or into the rushing torrent at its feet. As 

 we near the long tunnel of Vizzavona, the scenery grows what 

 the Teuton calls " wild-romantisch " to a degree. The kind of 

 granite which prevails in this part of the island appears to be of 

 a friable nature when exposed to the air, and the consequence is 

 that the outlines of the mountains (which run up to 8000 ft. 

 here) are often very rugged and fantastic in form, and their sides 

 riddled with countless caves, which come in very handy for the 

 bandits. 



The Hotel Monte d'Oro, on the Foce or Pass of Vizzavona, 

 is about on a par, in accommodation and cuisine, with a small 

 mountain hotel in Switzerland, but the climate is rather severe 

 before the month of July, until which period the species of 

 butterflies that occur there may almost be counted on the ten 

 fingers. At no time indeed do Lepidoptera appear in anything 

 like the abundance that one is familiar with in Switzerland or 

 the South of France, and 40 species of Bhopalocera for the 

 month of June seems a poor total. It was disappointing too to 

 find oneself, on a still and cloudless day, in a perfect paradise of 

 flowers, and brambles and sweet scents, and not a butterfly of 

 any description on the wing ; this was a common experience, and 

 patience was the only cure for it. Occasionally things occurred 

 in some abundance, and this was notably the case with Coeiio- 

 nympha corlnna in the open spaces of the forest below the hotel ; 

 also with a beautiful form of Lyccena argus, in which the female 

 has the wings deeply suffused with blue, probably the ab. calli' 

 opsis of Boisduval. 



