BUTTERFLIES OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 21 



The Central Provinces, it will thus be seen, is generally a moun- 

 tainous couutry, with plateaux, plains, hills and valleys breaking 

 up and diversifying its surface, and giving to it a greater variety of 

 scenery than, perhaps, is to be met with in any other part of India. 

 It may not be so grand as in many other districts, but for variety 

 and charm I think these Provinces hold their own against many 

 more celebrated and better known. 



The year is divided into three seasons — the cold season, the 

 hot season, and the rainy sason, four months of each. On the 

 plateaux the climate is usually cool, even during the hottest part 

 of the year, and during the winter frost is not uncommon. In the 

 plains the cold weather is the pleasantest time, but it is a pity that it 

 does not last long enough. The rains are moderate, ranging from 

 thirty to sixty inches in the various parts of the Provinces, the 

 greater rainfall, of course, being where the forests are thickest, and 

 the lesser where the open country predominates. The hot weather 

 in the plateaux is not at all unpleasant, the nights being always 

 cool ; and even in the plains this is usually the case. During the 

 day, however, the hot weather in the plains is burdensome, for a 

 fierce wind, like the breath from a furnace, rages, and the thermo- 

 meter shows a high register — one hundred degrees being about the 

 average. To protect ourselves we have to resort to the grateful 

 and fragrant khas-lchas tattie, the gently swinging punka, and the 

 softly murmuring thermantidote. 



As we have three seasons, so there are three periods of the year 

 when butterflies do most prevail — these times being at the change 

 of the seasons in February, June, and October. The butterflies 

 that have two seasonal broods only come out in June and October 

 and the latter brood would appear to hybernate ; for in February, 

 when numerous other species appear in lovely freshness, the (< seasonal 

 brooded" butterflies appear, but none of these double-brooded 

 butterflies have I seen in February that seem fresh and new. The 

 best times for procuring these in their different forms is in June and 

 October, and October is undoubtedly the best month in all the year 

 for every variety of butterfly. 



I have prepared a list of all the butterflies that have been 

 collected by myself in the Central Provinces, together with a few 



