JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



notes about them. From Mr. Lionel de Niceville, the author of " The 

 Butterflies of India, Burmah and Ceylon/' I have received much 

 help in compiling these notes. I had been a collector of butterflies 

 and other Natural History ' ' curiosities" off and on since I was a boy 

 at school. The study of entomology, and particularly of Lepidop- 

 tera, was fostered in our young minds by the existence, in our 

 midst, of a scientific master, who used to appropriate all our best 

 specimens : but at the same time, be it said in justice to him, he 

 always gave a prize for the best classified collection of butterflies 

 and moths at the end of the midsummer term. When I came out 

 to India, and saw the immense variety of Nature's works around me, 

 I set about collecting those which could most easily be preserved. 

 Birds, a specimen or so of each, I have skinned of every kind that 

 I could come across ; snakes, lizards, eggs, fossils, &c, I have 

 collected, and last but not least (to my mind), butterflies and 

 moths. But all in a desultory sort of way. I could never classify 

 anything except perhaps the birds (thanks to dear old Jerdon) because 

 I had no books to refer to. In the mofussil, where my lines have 

 been chiefly cast, libraries are few and far between, while, where 

 these do exist, works of reference on Natural History do not usually 

 find in them a place. I made several collections of Butterflies, all 

 gone to rack and ruin, alas ! and was in despair of ever getting my 

 specimens named till about eight years ago, when Mr. de Niceville 

 made an appeal for help to enable him to get together materials for 

 the publication of his great work. I at once responded to his appeal, 

 and the result has been that I have been able to name my speci- 

 mens through his kindness. I used to send him all my specimens 

 till 1883, when I had to go home on sick leave; but on coming out 

 again in the following year I thought I might as well begin a 

 classified collection for myself. It was not, however, till 1886 that 

 I was able to take it up as thoroughly as I could wish. Much of 

 the Central Provinces is not favorable for the collector ; but the 

 ground was then quite new, for, as far as I know, no one else had 

 before me taken up this branch of Natural History in these parts 

 with an eye to working it up. There is no doubt that the Satpura 

 Hills, and the forests all over the Provinces, would, if properly worked, 

 yield many rare species. There may still be some new to science, 



