120 [May, 



Any description of Khartum would be inadequate if it did not 

 allude to the prevailing northerly wind, which is not only health giving, 

 but entomologically speaking most important. Mr. H. L. Butler, the 

 Curator of the Zoological Gardens, informed me that there is no 

 continuous rainy season, but that heavy tropical downfalls are freqiient 

 in June, July, and August. 



Khartum is not altogether a pleasant j)lace for collecting in. To 

 the south is a specially barren* and wind-swept desert ; the northern 

 bank of the river is abandoned to barracks, railway works and dock- 

 yard — for Khartum is a naval port with a fleet of gunboats — hence 

 one's operations were practically confined to the neighbourhood of the 

 river bank above and below the city. Of the two localities, the best, 

 though the most distant, was beyond the water-works, near the 

 terminus of the tramway in the village of Burri. Here, among 

 Calotrojn.'^ procera, Willd., the wide-ranging Danaida chnjsipjins, L., 

 was common, and I was delighted to see alive for the first time the 

 form alcipj^^ts, Cram. The white hind-wings of these beautiful butter- 

 flies are conspicuous in flight, and at once reminded me of the yet more 

 beautiful Aci-ssa alboradiata, Auriv., which I had seen in such numbers 

 at the Victoria Falls four years before. From Cairo to Aswan I had 

 come across a fair number of clirysipims, but all of the typical form. 

 At Abu Simbel, in Nubia, I was surprised, not to meet with it, since 

 the Calotropis was there in plenty ; it woidd be interesting to know 

 what fonn occurs there. 



The twenty-eight specimens brought home from Khartum may be 

 classified as follows : — 



Typical clirysi'pims, L., 3 ^ . 



chrysipptis, L., but with the veins of the hind- wing dusted 

 with white, 6 (J , 2 ? . 



f . alcippoides, Moore, 4 i^ , 2 $ . 

 f . alcippus, Cram., 5^,2 $ . 

 f . dorippus, Klug, var. albinns, Lanzknecht, 1 J' . 

 Of the total specimens seen, I estimated at the time that at least 

 three-fourths were either alcippus or alcippoides. 



The " musk-rat " odour was evident enough in many examples, 

 about equally strong in both sexes, but in one ^ the scent was com- 

 pared to that of tobacco. 



The next most conspicuous butterfly was Papilio demodocvs, Esp., 

 I believe the only one of the sub-family that occurs there. During 



* Actuallj' harreu : pntoiitially it is said to be fertile, a tliiii eoating of sand covering a deep 

 deposit of silt. 



