Bird-winged Butterflies. 



I9*T 



he " only saw during that period h-om twenty to thirty females, which were flying 

 high and' settled only on flowers on high trees. The bait which attracted the males 

 never attracted the females, which fly mostly by themselves, and seldom near the 

 males, excepting when the latter are in pursuit of them." The bait referred to is 

 animal matter of some sort in a state of decay, and the collectors make use of this 

 \\eakness of the males by placing such material in suitable spots. A specimen 

 shown to us by Dr. Chas. Hose is interesting from the fact that it was brought 

 down accidentally by a bullet when he was rifle-shooting. 



The male has \'ery long, narrow fore-wings of a velvety-black colour, except 

 in the centre where there is a series of seven large, lance-shaped splashes of metallic 

 green. On the hind- wings this green coloration is continued as a broad band across 

 the wing, broken only by the black nervures crossing it. The bodv and legs are 

 black, but just behind the head there is a broad collar of brilliant carmine. The 

 female is more subdued in coloration. The black is not so rich, but has a tendency 

 to brown, and the green is less \'i\'id and pales away to greyish. Near the tip of 

 the fore-wing it is superseded by a large, greyish-white patch. The body is brown, 

 and the carmine collar is narrower than in the male. The male measures about 

 six and a half inches across the expanded fore-wings, and the female exceeds this 

 measurement by about half an inch. The male will be found in its natural tints in 

 the foreground of the coloured plate, and above it is the female. 



Mr. Burbidge, in his Ganicns of i/ie Sun, refers to the frequenc\' and familiarity 



Plwto by] [E. Sicp, F.L.S. 



'JiiK ('.RCEStis Bird WING. 

 This is the butterfly sovcii iiiclics .across the wings -wliicli, on its first discovery by .Alfred Russel Wallace in the Island of Batchian, so 

 strongly excited the famous naturalist that he suffered from headache for the rest of the day. The darker parts of the photograph are in 

 the male butterfly a rich velvety black, and the lighter portions are fiery orange. In the larger female the ground colour is brown, 

 with lighter spots of grey and dull yellow. 



