PEEFACE 



BT 



PROFESSOR POULTON 



Every reader of this book will, I feel sure, recognize 

 that it contains a really wonderful body of observations ; 

 especially so if the brief time in which they were made 

 be borne in mind — from February 1911 until the day 

 in August 1914 when, without a word of preparation or 

 a hint of warning, the author arrived in Entebbe to find 

 in full progress, and to bear his part in, the fiercest struggle 

 of human history. And even this short period of " island 

 life " was broken into by nearly a year's leave. 



The observations recorded, whether dealing, now and 

 then, with men, or, throughout the book, with other 

 animals, are both loving and accurate. The two qualities 

 are closely associated, for the love of living beings renders 

 the patient study of them an unceasmg fascination and 

 delight. 



Apart from the chapters on Sleeping Sickness and its 

 carrier, the Tse-tse fly, the most important discoveries 

 are those which add to our knowledge of Papilio dardanus, 

 and, above all, the breeding experiments which brought 

 final confirmation to the conclusions of Dr. Karl Jordan 

 upon that wonderful series of mimetic butterflies here 

 proved beyond doubt to be forms of a single species — 

 Pseudacraea eurytus of Linnaeus. 



xiii 



