HABITS OF EAST INDIAN INSKCTS. 267 



splendour, and beauty of colour, the richly ornamented flving 

 flowers, which we call bntteiflies, flit to and fro. 



Why do we find butterflies prefer such places? It is 

 perhaps because they are, if I may so express it, of a thirsty 

 nature — and this although they prefer the very hottest 

 sunshine, and even seem to find it so necessary, that if the 

 sun is only clouded over for a minute they settle as soon as 

 possible ; and if the sun should not shine — in the case 

 of some individuals even if it should not be shining 

 very strongly — never leave their hiding-place the whole 

 day. I have seen some striking examples of this, one of 

 which has, I think, never been recorded, and seems at 

 first sight altogellier to conflict with the idea that one is 

 accustomed to Ibrm of the habits of butterflies. Even in the 

 Netherlands we may occasionally see butterflies alight on 

 damp sand, on which the sun is shining, to suck up moisture 

 from the ground ; but if, in the East Indian Islands, we walk 

 along the sandy or gravelly bank of a mountain stream, or 

 along the bed of a nearly dry stream composed of similar 

 materials, during the hottest part of the day, we shall disturb 

 butterflies at almost every step, especially Papilionidce and 

 PieridoB, which sit there on the damp ground to refresh 

 themselves with visible pleasure, but with wings closed so 

 that they are scarcely discernible ; and you suddenly see 

 swarms of such butterflies fluttering up into the air from 

 belbre your feel. I was once travelling in South-west Celebes, 

 when my companion suddenly exclaimed as we were crossing 

 a nearly dry brook, "Oh, look what a beautiful flower!" 

 And on looking where he pointed I saw in the bed of the 

 stream amongst the damp gravel a beautiful orange-coloured 

 flower with a white centre, about ten centimetres in diameter. 

 The strangeness of the occurrence led me to step nearer in 

 order to observe it more closely, when what did I see ? — the 

 flower consisted of two concentric rings of butterflies 

 {Callidryas Scijlla, Linn.), which had closed their wings 

 (which are yellow, and orange beneath), and were busily 

 sucking up the moisture from the damp sand, and thus 

 represented in the most closely deceptive manner the petals 

 of a flower. They surrounded five of another white species 

 of Pieris similarly occupied, which thus seemed to form the 

 white centre of the flower, i still remember the amazement 



