162 Mr. G. F. Mathew’s life-histories of 
I told the natives to lead me to the ‘bush,’ where 
they were more likely to occur: they replied, ‘‘ bush too 
_ far,” but this was sheer nonsense, as I could see it not 
more than half a mile off. They are a lazy lot these 
natives of New Britain. However, at last we managed 
to get clear of the bananas and sugar-cane, and reached 
the edge of the forest, where we found that we had to 
ascend a gentle hill, the slopes of which were cut up 
into numerous gullies. The soil was everywhere very 
light and friable, and in many places pierced with holes 
resembling foxes earths. Iasked what they were caused 
by, and was told ‘‘ pigeon with big egg”; and presently 
one of the boys thrust his arm into one of these holes, 
and, after feeling about for a short time, brought out a 
pale buff-coloured egg, as large as a hen’s egg. These 
holes, the home of the megapode, were very numerous, 
so there were evidently plenty of birds, though I did not 
see one upon this occasion. Walking on we came to a 
tree covered with attractive flowers, and here butter- 
flies were common, but confined to two species of 
Danais, Eupiea, and Papilio polydorus, Linn., Diadema 
alimena, Linn., and a few Lycenide; but the flowers 
were mostly high and out of reach, and not many 
captures were made. A little farther on there was 
another tree with shining dark green leaves, and small 
white tubular flowers possessing the most exquisite 
perfume. When plucked a thick white sap exuded from 
the broken stem, which made me think it was some 
kind of india-rubber tree. Flying among the topmost 
boughs, and unfortunately out of reach, were several 
huge Ornithoptera, and I noticed that the males were 
golden green and black above, and not blue and black 
like those taken at Meoko the previous year. It was 
now getting pretty late, and the large butterflies seemed 
to be feeding in a very leisurely manner, as if they had 
finished for the day, and several of them settled among 
the branches apparently for the night. I was in despair 
and just moving off to another tree, when I saw a male 
alight upon a twig about twenty feet from the ground, 
and close to the trunk of the tree, where he evidently 
meant to take up his quarters for the night. I waited 
for a few minutes to allow him to compose himself, and 
then sent one of the natives up the tree with my net. 
The butterfly kept quite still as he ascended, although 
