148 
[December, 
EREBIA CASSIOPE AT HOME. 
BY JANE FRASER. 
Of the four localities in Perthshire where I have met with JErebia 
Cassiope , three are on the northern slope of mountains, and thus 
peculiarly exposed to cold wind. During last summer (1880) I 
observed Cassiope on the wing for the first time on June 16th, the day 
was bright and sunny, with a strong wind from the east, only a very few 
of the insects (all males) were to be seen, and all had that velvety 
appearance which betokens recent emergence. On June 25th, it was 
out in great abundance, and on July 1st, still appeared in large 
numbers, and though some of them were worn and tattered, many of 
both sexes appeared to be freshly out. 
Among the Perthshire hills there is one, which, though only 
between 2000 and 3000 feet high, is rather famous as a place where 
strangers not well up in the geography of the surroundings, are apt 
to lose their way, and have been known to wander as far as a shepherd’s 
hut in a neighbouring glen, several miles in an opposite direction from 
the glen they started from in the morning. It is certainly one of the 
wildest, rockiest bits of hill ground in Perthshire, at the base pretty well 
wooded with birch, fir, hazel, and alder, and there is one secluded spot 
where, underneath the hazels, the rare Scopula decrepitalis has its home. 
Prom half-way up the mountain to the summit there are innumer- 
able high ridges of rock, and between these ridges there are rills of 
clear sparkling water foaming and tumbling over rocks and stones, 
sometimes forming still pools which reflect the heather-clad banks, 
and here and there huge masses of rock are lying, which must in 
times gone by have rolled down from the mountain top, but now are 
overgrown with heather, blaeberry, and crowberry. These huge 
detached masses form favourite resting places for the Peregrine 
Palcon, and more than once I have got a glimpse of this grand-looking 
bird perched in such spots, and as traces of the fur of the mountain 
hare and feathers and bones of birds may be observed sometimes on 
the tops of those rocks, it would seem to be a habit of the Peregrine 
to convey his food there. 
On July 1st, we ascended this hill from the north, its steepest 
and most rocky side. The morning had been cold and misty, but the 
clouds gradually “lifted,” and at last the sun sent forth a blaze of 
heat, and immense numbers of insects appeared on the wing. Prom 
the sheltered side of nearly every rock Larentia ccesiata rose in 
crowds at our approach, some of them with the dark bar on the fore- 
wing very black and strongly marked, and, wherever there was a bit of 
