﻿154 THE KNTOMOLOGIST. 



ceptionally mild weather of the north-east monsoon, for only 

 29.2 inches fell in the last four months of the year instead 

 of the average 55.5 — a good parallel to that recorded by 

 Shelford. 



The year 1913, on the other hand, in Sarawak was nearly a 

 record icet one, no less than 220.17 inches falling in Kuching. 



This is the first time I have witnessed one of these extra- 

 ordinary flights, which I had always pictured as a steady stream 

 of butterflies pursuing an even course high over head and out of 

 reach of earthly obstacles. But to me there was something 

 almost uncanny in the way every single individual seemed 

 blindly intent on going west. I watched them flying low over 

 the cemetery, then suddenly they would find themselves brought 

 up short by a belt of jungle ; through it they went, in and out of 

 trees, then out again for a short spell of plain sailing across the 

 open grounds round the Museum ; then another obstacle met 

 them in the rather higher ground of the Eesidency gardens. A 

 little further on a row of Chinese houses puzzled them ; several 

 flew into the verandahs, but that extraordinary sense of direction 

 led them on. Shelford rather aptly describes them as like a 

 heavy shower of falling leaves on a gusty autumn day in Eng- 

 land. ^ I imagine I did not see them in anything like the same 

 quantity as he did, although to me the numbers were certainly 

 astonishing. 



Shelford's account differs from mine in one or two points. 

 Thus he writes : "A bright westerly {sic)'^ wind was blowing at 

 the time, and the butterflies flew before it all over the town of 

 Kuching towards Mt. Matang in a continuous flood for about 

 fifteen minutes, whilst stragglers followed up in ever-decreasing 

 numbers for the rest of the day." 



He goes on to observe that " the swarm, or some part of it, 

 arrived at Mt. Matang (ten miles west of Kuching) towards even- 

 ing, and streamed up to the summit. At Sadong (twenty miles 

 east of Kuching) the same phenomenon was witnessed at the 

 same time on the same day as in Kuching, but whether this 

 was a separate swarm or merely one of enormous size sweeping 

 over the whole area between Sadong and Kuching it is impossible 

 to say." 



This suggestion of Shelford raises the question whether these 

 swarms were strictly local, i. e. moving from one place in Sarawak 

 to another not very distant, or did we observe a portion of a 

 bigger " international " migration, say from Borneo to Singapore 

 (five hundred miles due west of Sarawak) ? I have no literature 

 at my disposal to quote chapter and verse for instances of 

 butterfly swarms seen at sea or migrating long distances ; Darwin 



''■'■ He must have meant to write easterly, as he goes ou to state the 

 butterflies flew before it from Kuching towards Matang, which lies due ^vest 

 of Kuching, 



