72 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



resounding afar through the wilderness, as some great 

 bough or entire tree falls to the ground." With a few 

 verbal alterations these remarks will apply equally to 

 the primeval forests of the Malay Archipelago ; and it is 

 probable that those of West Africa offer no important 

 differences in this respect. There is, nevertheless, one 

 form of life which is very rarely absent in the more 

 luxuriant parts of the tropics, and which is more often 

 so abundant as to form a decided feature in the scene. 

 It is therefore the group which best characterises the 

 equatorial zone, and should form the starting-point for 

 our review. This group is that of the diurnal Lepidop- 

 tera or butterflies, 



Diurnal Lepidoptera. Wherever in the equatorial 

 zone a considerable extent of the primeval forest 

 remains, the observer can hardly fail to be struck by the 

 abundance and the conspicuous beauty of the butterflies. 

 Not only are they abundant in individuals, but their 

 large size, their elegant forms, their rich and varied 

 colours, and the number of distinct species almost 

 everywhere to be met with are equally remarkable. In 

 many localities near the northern or southern tropics 

 they are perhaps equally abundant, but these spots are 

 more or less exceptional ; whereas within the equatorial 

 zone, and with the limitations above stated, butterflies 

 form one of the most constant and most conspicuous 

 displays of animal life. They abound most in old and 

 tolerably open roads and pathways through the forest, 

 but they are also very plentiful in old settlements in 

 which fruit-trees and shrubbery offer suitable haunts. In 

 the vicinity of such old towns as Malacca and Amboyna 

 in the East, and of Para and Rio de Janeiro in the 



