Rhopalocera from the Australian region. 168 
the branches were so much shaken that I expected every 
moment to see it fly away. However, the naked native 
crawled nearer and nearer, until he was well within 
reach, when he made a clever stroke and caught it, and 
handed the net down tome. To my chagrin it proved 
to be a very mutilated and ragged specimen, and quite 
unfit for anything, so it was allowed its liberty. A few 
minutes after this I had a wild run over some rugged 
and open ground, after a huge female, which went 
flapping along like an owl just in front of me. I came 
up with her, and was on the point of making a stroke 
when I put my foot into one of the megapodes’ holes, 
and fell heavily among the coarse sedgy grass. This 
gave the butterfly such an advantage that I did not 
resume the chase, and, as it was now getting late, we 
returned to the boat. 
We remained at Matupi the whole of the next day, 
the men being employed coaling ship; so 1 determined 
to have a long hunt for Or nithoptera. One of my mess- 
mates (T.), hearing my account of the megapodes’ holes, 
took his gun and accompanied me. We left the ship at 
nine o’clock, and, having borrowed a boat from Captain 
Hernsheim, with nine natives to pull and assist us, we 
soon reached the opposite side. We landed about three 
miles to the eastward of the point where we disembarked 
the day before, and within a short distance of a small 
active voleano, about three hundred feet high. As we 
neared the shore we noticed steam rising from the 
surface of the water, and many boiling springs could be 
seen bubbling up from the bottom, and the water near 
them was so hot we could scarcely bear our hands in it. 
Nothing grew within a hundred and fifty yards of the 
summit of the volcano, and its sides were deeply scored 
as if from lava action, and in many places jets of steam 
were issuing. Here and there there were large sulphur- 
yellow patches, and near its base, and not far from the 
shore, were numerous clumps of a peculiar bright 
sulphur-green grass, which were very conspicuous in 
contrast with the dark ereen forest foliage close at hand. 
As soon as we landed we separated, my friend T. 
going one way with two or three natives to look for 
megapodes, while I, with the remaining natives, went 
in another direction in search of ‘“ bembi’s.”” We agreed 
to keep as near as possible, and to ‘‘ cooey ’’ occasionally 
mM 2 
