THE LARVsE AND PUP.E OF BUTTERFLIES. 



unaccountably favourable to bodily exertion, a rainfall of nearly 20< 

 inches distributed itself so judiciously that it offered little obstruction 

 to whole-day excursions; and, lastly, the season was apparently an 

 unusually good one for larvae of all kinds. We also bad an advan- 

 tage in the fact that catching butterflies has been for main' years 

 common in Karwar, and those Europeans, who were not collect or- 

 themselves, far from pointing at us the finger of scorn, used to send 

 us all sorts of flying and creeping things found about their bungalows. 

 Even the cultivators around were accustomed to the sight of " Sabeb 

 lok" rushing about their fields and gardens flourishing nets, and did not 

 at once warn us off the premises as has been our experience at home in 

 bygone years. We can never forget our chase after about the first 

 • ( louded- Yellow " we had seen. It was down in Surrey, and after a long- 

 chase along the edge of a hay- field we had just got within reach, when 

 we were stopped by three men, the leader of whom promptly stated that 

 he had seen many blank fools in his life, but never such a blank one 

 as our unfortunate selves, and that such blank folly should at any 

 rate not go on in his fields. We humbly apologized, and he turned 

 out a good sort, but alas ! that Colias edusa never appeared in our 

 collection. Here we had no such experiences, and except one 

 Brahman who deliberately destroyed a creeper in his hedge to prevent 

 us taking leaves to feed some caterpillars of Parthenos virens, no 

 instance of churlishness has at any time come to our notice. We 

 determined at first to paint all the butterfly caterpillars we could get, 

 but had very soon to abandon that thought. Finding, feeding and 

 tending took up all our leisure time. We had little reason, however, 

 to regret this, for Mrs. Blathwayt came to our aid with an artistic 

 skill to which we could make no pretence and a naturalist's eye for 

 anatomy and attitude. By the end of the monsoon we found that 

 we had reared nearly seventy species of butterfly larvae, of which 

 more than half were new to us, and some, as far as Ave know, have 

 not hitherto been described. We had written careful descriptions 

 and noted peculiarities of habit, and in nearly every case, with the 

 kind help of Mr. W. A. Talbot of the Forest Department, an accom- 

 plished botanist, we had identified the food-plant. In the hope of 

 helping others in a most delightful and interesting pursuit and per- 

 haps encouraging some to take it up who have not yet done so, we 



