( 4o3 ) 



left- a fortnne. I gave the boy two shilliogs, two tiii,s of English bacon, anil five 

 sticks of tobacco. I have got what I came for, so I am satisfied. Of the Morplio- 

 tcnaris I have a fair series now, bnt we are too high for the tailed TroidesT * 



It was not a particularly tine Christmas that our friend sjient np there in 

 his monntain cam}), near the head-waters of the Angabunga River, a' southern 

 affluent of the St. Joseph liiver. " Rain all day yesterday and to-day," he writes on 

 December 25th. " My mail-boys have been away eighteen days, and are not back 

 yet. Up to the present I have set about 5GU0 insects, and have everything now 

 that I came for, and am in hopes of getting more of that fine Troides. I have 

 lately been getting local natives to work for them, but cannot get any good 

 specimens besides the first one. 



" Three days ago I had to go across to another village to make friends (or 

 otherwise) with the natives of Sotamah, on account of the people here at camp 

 telling me they were afraid of going there to collect, as the Sotamah people were 

 threatening them with spears from above on the hillside. I have been expecting a 

 jiig and native food yesterday or to-day, as a sign of good-will resulting from my 

 journey, but the rain has ajiparently delayed them. 



" You will probably recollect my mentioning some time ago that I thought you 

 had made a mistake in stating I only got one female of Papilio weiskei during my 

 stay at the Aroa River in 1903. Well, I have kept this time all the specimens, 

 both good and bad, and find that I have several females, but not one like the single 

 green female specimen figured by you. 



" If I could onl) find the proper food-plant of the banded Troides, I could breed 

 ii lot. I have fully fifteen eggs of the species ; some have already hatched, but the 

 larvae have died. The natives shoot the females, as I said l)efore, with bows and arrows. 



" I have read Mr. Pratt's article describing his expedition to the Aroa River 

 (Dinawa and neighbourhood). It is rather amusing reading for one who knows the 

 country. ' So thick was the forest that scarcely any light penetrated ' . . . ' and as 

 it was raining must of the way, not a sound was heard or a sign of life, etc' I 

 suppose this is the approved style of writing abont a tropical country. But you 

 will perhajjs be interested to hear that down near the coast ' game ' abounds. It is 

 usual for a person who has any go in him to be ahead of the carriers with rifle or 

 gnn to shoot game. The last time I came up (last year, on the ' measle ' trip), we 

 got three Goura pigeons, one cassowary, one 'turkey,' two wallabies, and, with 

 dynamite, about a hundredweight of fish iu one day's travelling. I only wish we 

 had some of the game up here. 



" The liindwing of the banded Troides, when alive or fresh, is almost a trans- 

 parent gold. I saw a specimen some hundred feet high up some days ago, and the 

 liindwings were so conspicuous that the specimen looked as if it had brilliant yellow 

 tails. I notice that the transparency disappears more or less when the s2)ecimen is 

 dead and dried. I notice too that iu the old S2)ecimens the greenish golden colour 

 along the costal margin of the ibrewing lias turned to bhiish green on account of 

 sua or weather. 



" I am going to send this letter down by native carrier to-morrow (December 

 29th). I have heard to-day from the natives that some of the boys I sent down on 

 the 8th have been killed by the Powra jicople, and that the remainder are afraid of 

 coming back here. So if this letter reaches you, it is lucky. I am sending it by a 

 different route, along the south side of the Aroa instead of the north, which was the 



* X. meritlhnuiUs, 



