242 [April, 



Far East more than I have ; and the most part of my journeyings have 

 been on foot, or in small boats, and, as far as my experience goes, the 

 Tropics cannot compare in the smallest degree with the temperate 

 zone for profusion of butterflies, flowers, and birds. I have described 

 in one of your back numbers (E. M. M., vol. xiv, p. 54) the azalea-clad 

 hills of the Snowy Valley, in the " Central Elowery Land," and never 

 anywhere throughout all my wanderings in tropical forests have I seen 

 anything that in the slightest approached that Paradise for naturalists. 



The forest of the Philippines is the most impressive I know, the 

 canopy of leaves is thicker, and, therefore, the gloom below more 

 intense, the air feels a chillier damp, and the absence of life and sound 

 is more complete than in any other forest I have been in ; butterflies, 

 in particular, are never found under the forest canopy. In Borneo, 

 the canopy overhead is not quite so dense, the air is a trifle warmer, 

 occasionally a monkey, a squirrel, or a bird may been seen, and, 

 possibly, some errant specimen of the Satyridce may be found wander- 

 ing about even in the true forest. In Malaya proper there are lots 

 of old re-grown clearings ; the air is a moist heat ; the vegetation is 

 in huge masses, much more luxuriant than in either of the others ; 

 and that feeling of mysterious awe, which is in reality the real attrac- 

 tion of the tropical forest, is not nearly so much felt. But wherever 

 he may be going, the inexperienced entomologist in the Tropics must 

 not expect too much at first, until he has found out the nooks and 

 corners most frequented by his game, for butterflies in the Tropics are i 

 not to be found everywhere, but have their favourite places, as well 

 as those in England. I remember my first day's entomologizing in 

 North Borneo : no other insect-hunter had ever been within a couple 

 of hundred miles of the place ; there was dense forest all round, the j 

 weather was fine, I was in the middle of the Ornithoptera country, and, 

 armed with a net of most portentous dimensions, and with my head 

 full of thoughts of two or three new Papilios at least, I plunged into 

 the forest. 



Three hours later I was back at the steamer again, a wiser, at all ; 

 events, if not a better man, but anyhow, a pound or two lighter ! I 

 had tried the open, and I had tried the forest ; I had penetrated into J 

 the depths of a mangrove swamp, and I had been bemired in a " ncpa," 

 then I tried the edge of the jungle, and afterwards some re-grown 

 land, all in vain ! and, positively, when I got on board, my collecting 1 

 box contained but one specimen of the universal Melanitis Lcda, and a I 

 battered and washed-out Neptis, which looked as though it might have 

 been the abundant N. Eurynome w r hen fresh ; and these were the only 



