is^:!] ■ 259 



seen any day, wet or dry, when I was here in October, 1881, there was scarcely one 

 now, with the exception of the " hairstreaks," which were much better represented. 

 "^ Two or three lovely little purple species, barred beneath with black, wliite, and rust- 

 red, which I had not observed before, were now not rare. A fine Megalura, a hand- 

 some brown Nymphalid butterfly, with paler transverse bars and great tails to the 

 hind-wings, was occasionally caught on board the ship ; and the lovely green and 

 black-tailed butterfly-moth, Urania Leilus was frequently seen on the wing towards 

 sunset, flying, however, so high, and at such a tremendous pace, that I could not 

 secure a single specimen. At Taboga, from May 29th to June 3rd, I got several nice 

 fresh Theclee and skippers, the curious long-tailed, angular- winged, fulvous and brown 

 Marpesia Thetis, as well as two very fine Spl^nges ; and, by sugaring the trunks of 

 orange-trees in the day-time, I attracted some fine specimens of the handsome 

 Gi/noecia Dirce, Prepona Demodice, and sp., and two or three other jSymphalidcB, 

 including the great brown and orange Agaiiisthos Orion, which I failed to secure, 

 to my extreme disgust. Two or three fine Elaters and longicorns also visited the bait. 



On June 6th, I made an excursion to Emperador, a station on the Isthmus rail- 

 way, about twelve miles from Panama, in the mid.st of a magnificent primeval forest. 

 Although a tremendous thunderstorm came on soon after noon, and put a stop to 

 collecting for the day, I was not unsuccessful, as I observed many insects which I 

 had never seen at Panama, and added eighteen species of butterflies to my collection, 

 among them some lovely transparent Ithomias, &c. 



We left Panama on June 8th, and entered the Q-ulf of Nicoya on the 11th, 

 anchoring for a day off Puntarenas, the chief Pacific seaport of the republic of Costa 

 Rica. This little town (the cleanest, by the way, which I have seen on this part of 

 the coast) is built on a low sandy spit covered with thorny brushwood, extending 

 about three miles into the Gulf. There is not much forest in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, but I managed to get a good many insects in a short walk on the shore, 

 mostly of species previously met with at Panama, and including a vei-y fine series 

 of the richly coloured Colanis PhcBrusa, liitherto very rare to me. The roadstead of 

 Puntarenas is notorious for the abundance of sharks, of which we saw a large 

 number, one, in particular, was a monster, its length being estimated at thirty feet 

 at least. 



After a pleasant passage of a week's duration, in which we encountered great 

 numbers of turtle, we anchored in the beautiful laud-locked harbour of Acapulco, 

 which, being almost surrounded by high forest-clad hills, and cut off from the sea- 

 breeze, was as hot as an oven. The town, which contains about 4000 to 5000 inhabi- 

 tants, is of poor appearance, though it seems to have seen better days : the aspect of 

 the country is much more tropical than even at Panama, owing to the large groves 

 of fine cocoanut palms which fringe the beach of the harbour. During our brief 

 stay of four days, the weather (except on the 22nd, when it rained almost without 

 intermission) was fine and sunny, until late in the afternoon, the day usually ending 

 ■with a heavy thunder-shower ; but it was too hot for the active exertion necessary 

 in the chase of tropical butterflies. I managed, however, with the assistance of one 

 or two of my messmates, to obtain a very nice lot of insects, including nearly eighty 

 species of butterflies, forty-two of them being new to my collection. 



{To he conilnued). 



