132 STATURAL HISTORY. 



22. Freds iphita.—Mtzx the raias this butterfly is very plentiful., 

 especially among the thorny jungle which covers the little hills of the 

 Konkan. It is also one of the most familiar species en the ghats. The 

 depth of colour on the underside varies much, and the white spot is 

 sometimes prestnt and sometimes absent. I have never seen specimens 

 here as large as s< me which come from the Himalayas. It has all the habits 

 of a Junonia, and its colour seems inappropriate, for it lives in the midst 

 of green foliage and rarely stttles on the ground. 



23. Kaliima wardi — I believe this grand butterfly is fairly common 

 in every well-wooded part of the country. It appears chiefly in March,. 

 April and May, when dead leaves are in fashion, and haunts dry nullahs 

 and ravines, flash'ng into sight suddenly and as suddenly disappearing into 

 a tree where, after long and cautious peering, you (fail to) discern it 

 sitting motionless on the trunk, inaccessible to your net of course. When 

 you do catch one, it is broken. I suppose their habit of settling in the 

 interior of a tree, upon the trunk or larger branches, tends to break their 

 wings. Last March, the Eev. A. B. Watson, of Poona, made the discovery 

 that this and several other species which most successfully defy the net, 

 such as Char axes aihamas, may be captured wholesale at sugar. He had 

 sugared some trees for moths without success, but passing afterwards by 

 daj light, he found that they had become a rendezvous for half a doztn 

 species of butterflies, of which he took as many as he pleased, the present 

 species, in particular, being so infatuated or so drunk that it allowed itself 

 to be taken with the fingers. 



24. Charades imna. — I became awsre of its existence of this striking 

 buttejfly only lasi December, when Mr. J. Davidson and I spent part of two 

 days at Matheran in trying to capture two specimens, or rather, I sin uld say, 

 one specimen, for when we got them we found that only half of each remained. 

 I have found since that the species is by no means uncommon on the 

 ghats fiom December till March at least ; but it does not put itself in the 

 way of being converted into specimens. It comes out about 10 o'clock, 

 and, selecting a tree with bright shiny leaves, perches bolt upright in the 

 middle of a particular leaf, just a foot above the highest point you can 

 reach with your net. Whether by accident or design, the position is fenced 

 on all sides with a creeper whose sharp-curved thorns lay hold of everything 

 that passes them and let go nothing. There the proud creature sits, 

 chasing away any other butteifly that approaches, and returning to the 

 same leaf. If you pelt it with stones, it darts off, fakes a shoit circuit 

 and returns to the same leaf. You nay jeltit for an hour with the 

 same result. You may easily circumvent it, however, by erecting a 

 platform of t-tones under its perch, but your aim must be sure and your 

 stroke sudden, for to other butterfly goes off with such rapidity. There 



