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of food. There are always two great seasons in the damp parts of 

 India, one in the month of April, just touching March and May, and 

 one, by far the "heaviest," as the natives say here, in the months of 

 September and October, which exactly correspond to the two great 

 shooting times of the trees and plants of all kinds; nearly all the 

 trees flower twice in those parts, also, as you might suppose, there 

 being two sprouting seasons. 



When we were breeding butterflies in Kanara we found that 

 males and females came out in equal numbers; which fact surprised 

 us much at the time, for certain species, of which one seldom or never 

 sees the female, such as Gharaxes imna and schreiheri (warch), Euripus 

 consimUis and many of the "blues." When one does come across 

 them it is always in the underwood in the jungles, while the males 

 bask openly in the sun on the tops of high trees, on leaves by the 

 road-side &c. In Karwar (North Kanara) we had rare opportunities 

 for observing this as the top of a hill close by was 1500 feet above sea 

 level where we lived (Karwar is on the sea-beach), and the trees on 

 the summit of this hill are all stunted by the strong winds and are 

 overtopped in places by huge boulders where we could stand and 

 observe, having a view all round of land and sea, hill and plain for 40 

 miles on every side. Here, on muggy days in the monsoon, when the 

 mists were driving over the top of the hill from the Indian Ocean, 

 causing intervals of strong hot sun, light and cool shade, on the 

 summit, butterflies used to come in the sunny breaks in the mist and 

 settle in hundreds-I had nearly said thousands-on the surrounding 

 leaves • the air at times used to be thick with them chasing each other 

 and generally enjoying themselves. All these butterflies, without 

 exception, were males; a stray female would come up through the 

 underwood now and then, but never to stay. A female Charades imna 

 or schreiheri or Cynthia saloma was an event not to be forgotten, m 

 fact I only remember once seeing one of the last. We learnt a lot 

 about the habits of butterflies in those days: what species were 

 " baskers " and what were not for example. Cynthia saloma, and five 

 species of Chara:ves {imna, ivardi, schreiheri, fahius and athamas) were 

 the most persistent " baskers " of the lot : then there were " blues " of 

 the genera Virachola, Camena, Curetis and Tajuria ; Euthalia luhentina 

 and garuda would come along later in the day ; skippers of the genera 

 Bihasis {sena), Rasora (chiefly chromus), Halpe moorei : Athyma 

 inarina and mahesa and occasionally A. selenophora. None of the 

 Fapiliosov Pierines ever used to bask; the only Pai.z7z. that ever 

 came up to the top for the sun was panope (= dissimihs), and then 



