Melitaa Eastern Pamphila Nostra- Gardens of Gezeedeh, Dec. 1, 1883, Cairo. occ. North-West Provinces, in short. And to Melitaa Trivia, of which I took four specimens in May round the ruins of May, 1882. St. John's Church, Ephesus, Kirby assigns Northern and Western Asia as its habitat. In reference to Skippers, I caught six specimens of Pamphila Nostradamus in the gardens of Gezeedeh on December 1. This species is recorded by Kirby from South Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa. Erynnis Alcea, of which I only captured one specimen at the Acropolis, in May, 1882, is, according to Kirby, found in North Africa, North and West Asia, and in Europe. I must not omit to make mention of Lycæna Bætica, according to Kirby Cupido Bæticus, which I caught in or near Cairo on December 10. The specimens I had previously in my cabinet are labelled India, and it would seem to be widely distributed over three continents, as Kirby records it from South Europe, South Asia, as well as Africa. It was first noticed on our English coast about or nearly thirty years ago. In common Erynnis Acropolis, May, 1882, Lycæna Dec. 10, Which visited in the the most of with several tropical species of Polyommatus, but unlike every English one in this respect, it has short tails, similar to those of a Thecla, and is also found a long distance up the Nile, as, if my memory serves me rightly, I noticed it at Aboo Simbel, nearly 900 miles from Alexandria. Rightly to determine which country in the East is most productive in butterflies, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Turkey and Greece ought all to be visited in successive years, regarded as and for the same period of the year,-four months, say, from productive the beginning of March to the end of June. Then, given butterflies, equally favourable conditions of weather, a comparison might fairly be instituted, and some adequate conclusion arrived at. But if the traveller, as was the case with myself, happens to be in March in Egypt, in March and April in Palestine, in April in Syria, in May in Asia Minor and Turkey, in May and June at Athens, and in June at Corfu, the chances are that, as the summer advances, he will capture most kinds of butterflies in the country he visits last. It is needless to remark that he must bear in mind all the kinds he sees, not only what he succeeds in capturing, and that whichever country he is in, probably some of the March kinds will have disappeared at the end of May, and so on, and that not only the number of species belonging to any particular district, but the number of purely Eastern species, is to be taken into account. Compare the accompanying rough calculation of my captures in 1882 of various butterflies in the order of the different countries as I travelled: The reason why I captured fewer species in Corfu than in Athens, though I visited Corfu last, was because I stayed a shorter time there, and had already at Athens possessed myself of some of the kinds that I afterwards saw at Corfu. Also, compare the accompanying table of what may be regarded as purely Eastern species: Egypt has not many species, but those she does possess are truly Oriental. This refers to my second visit there. On my first I only saw European Pieride, which I failed to catch. of others in Oriental Canon letter Palestine, Canon Tristram's experience of collecting in Syria will best Experiences be given in his own words: "When last in Syria (for six reference to months in 1881), I saw many of the genus Hipparchia, and entomology. a few large Satyrids, too, in the wooded districts between Extract from Mons Casius and the bend of the Orontes; but I had neither Tristram's the time nor means for collecting, as I was travelling light, respecting without tent or equipage. I have just looked into my cabinet the Rhopalocera of what I collected in Palestine in 1872, and I see Papilio of Syria and Machaon, P. Podalirius, and P. Alexanor. Thais medesicaste I got, and I think in my last visit I saw Thais polyxena common in places. Of Pontia I have P. Eupheno very common. Also P. allied to P. Belia, but with the P. Beleunderside of lower wing broad bands of silver, instead of blotches very common. Gonepteryx Cleopatra-Colias Hyale. I think I saw often Colias aurora, but only in my last visit. Hipparchia galathea very common. I got also what I believe to be H. Lachesis Libythea Celtis-North Syria. Limenitis Lachesiscamilla (?), and lucilla, an Apatura, and a Charaxes (?) jasius. The Polyommata and Fritillaries were. Fritillaries were too numerous to attempt. For all Rhopalocera Mount Casius in July is the spot of Syria for the collector.” From what is above stated, and is attended with circumstances of additional interest from Canon Tristram's wide mia. (?) Titea. Canon the butter flies of Palestine in the Dictionary and repeated experiences of Eastern travel, and his correspondingly great knowledge of the Oriental fauna, it will be noticed that some of the species-the large Satyridæ, for example,—that he captured in Syria are probably identical with those that I caught in the neighbourhood of Athens. So, too, in reference to G. Cleopatra; the kinds are the same as regards us both, but the particular Eastern locality different. His longer list of Rhopalocera of Syria and Palestine may also fairly be attributed to the fact that the Canon has paid more visits, visited more districts, and later on in the season, than I have had the good fortune to do, and similarly there are some species enumerated by him in the passage I have just quoted that I have never seen alive anywhere; P. Eupheno and Charaxes Jasius to wit, Colias Aurora also, and Thais Polyxena (supposing this last butterfly to be distinct from what I know as T. Cerisyi), and Libythea Celtis also. Extract from To proceed to Canon Tristram's account of the "Natural Tristram's History of Palestine," in The Dictionary of the Bible, I must account of not fail to omit his mention of the genus Vanessa, the more especially as my own observation of that particular group has proved so scanty. In vol. ii., page 691, we are told: The of the Bible. gorgeous genus Vanessa is very common in all suitable localities; the almost cosmopolitan Cynthia Cardui and Vanessa Atalanta, V. L. album and V. Antiopa may be mentioned." The V. L. album here recorded is the same as the V. Egea, of which I saw one at Philadelphia, and according to the Canon's account somewhere else, I think in a letter, V. Io is also plentiful in Palestine. I can fully endorse the reality and importance of his concluding observation in his article on "Palestine," when he says: "If the many travellers who year by year visit the Holy Land would pay some attention to its zoology by bringing home collections, and by investigations in the country, we should soon hope to have a fair knowledge of the fauna of a land which, in this respect, has been so much neglected, and should doubtless gain much towards the elucidation of many passages of Holy Scripture." I have also witnessed for myself the following fact, that "the Apollo butterfly of the Alps is recalled on Mount Olivet by the exquisite Parnassius Apollinus. This butterfly has been variously termed Apollinus Thais or Apollina. A synonymic list of the butterflies of the Holy Land would be of real service, as the few particulars in which I feel myself compelled to differ from the Canon arise almost altogether from the diversity of names employed to indicate certain species. 1 The Rev. J. G. Wood has caused three kinds of Syrian Rev. J. G. butterflies to be figured in his illustrations of (C Bible illustrations Animals," namely, Anthocaris glauce Hipparchia Persephone Papilio virgatus, and of these Anthocaris glauce, which he calls the Syrian orange-tip, is the Belemia of my catching above recorded— Euchloe Belemia according to Kirby. The butterfly that Mr. Wood calls Hipparchia Persephone, and which he names the Syrian grayling, is termed Hipparchia anthe in my collection. I never saw or caught it, however, in the East myself. My two specimens that I had before are labelled Europe as regards habitat, and Kirby assigns as its locality South Europe and Western Asia. The third species, Papilio virgatus, has already been fully discussed. Wood's of Syrian butterflies in his Bible Animals. cal reasons ber of moths doptera observed in the East. Of Lepidoptera Heterocera I have it in my power to state Hypothetivery little. Whether the scarcity of moths is to be attributed assigned for to the coldness of the atmosphere after the sun has set in scanty num. regions where the wind blows uninterruptedly across the (Lepidesert, with no intervening obstacle or shelter to break its Heterocera) force, or to the short duration of a Syrian twilight, or to the scanty amount of wood, and, at all events, of large timber in many places, or to all these causes combined, is a matter of opinion. Granted that there were trees of requisite size for sugaring, and in a suitable situation for pursuing that method of attracting moths, it would be absolutely unsafe to examine the trunks after nightfall in the neighbourhood of any Eastern town or village, unless attended by an armed guard. There are no evenings, as with us, at the same time close, cloudy, and damp-such as moths love-in lands where there is literally no haze or fog whatever to obscure the distant view. All that I have to state, therefore, with regard to moths seen in the East is taken from my article on this subject in the Entomologist for the month of January, 1886, and is as follows: tion of moths the East. "Of moths, the number of species is very scanty, so far as Enumeramy personal observations went to wit, Saturnia pyri, at captured in Beyrout; Arctia villica, on the banks of the Meles; Zygæna brisæe in the Stadium, and Pnyx at Athens, and Z. carniolica in the Pass of Daphne; Dasydia obfuscata (Scotch annulet), Sphinx Best method of preserving captured in the East. Ateuchus of the ancients. at Alexandretta; Venilia maculata (speckled yellow), at the entrance to the Wady Ali; and, on my second journey, Chorocampa celerio, at the New Hotel, Cairo, in December." Lastly, to quote once more from Canon Tristram's article: "The caterpillar of the magnificent Sphinx nerii feeds in swarms on the oleanders by the banks of the Jordan." It will, I think, be found advisable to transfer Coleoptera Coleoptera shortly after the specimens are taken, and, at all events the larger species, to spirits, until the traveller has the requisite leisure and space to arrange his collection on his return home. Otherwise, on the supposition that the Coleoptera are pinned in a box in the course of his journeys, some kinds (if the box be kept closed and never exposed to fresh air) are apt to snap asunder and become very offensive,-notably the Ateuchus sacer, or Scarabæus of the ancient Egyptians, from the circumstance of what constitutes its daily diet, not to particularise further, it being one of those which are popularly known as scavenger beetles. On the other hand, if the insectbox be opened for ventilation, the misfortune that befel me may be the lot of another collector. When staying at the New Hotel, Cairo, I lost the Coleoptera, &c., I had collected in the vicinity of the Pyramids from the following cause. The sashes of the French window in my bedroom were open one afternoon, and my insect-box was left open on a settee close to the window. A rat must have climbed up the stem of the banana in the front garden, thence, by the long leaves which reached the verandah, on to the parapet, and thence, doubtless by the open casement, into the room, where he proceeded to devour the contents of the box, leaving nothing but the pins strewed about, along with some stray legs and wings. The said verandah communicates with three or four apartments, and a colonel of our British force quartered in Cairo, whose room was on the same floor, had to lament the loss of his candles on that same afternoon. If it could be shown on sufficient grounds, from testimony that I or others are able to in connexion adduce, that a considerable similarity exists between the respective Coleoptera of the various countries bordered by terranean the Mediterranean littoral, a valuable argument might Eastern Coleoptera, with the Medi littoral. be founded on this fact as establishing the |