166 Mr. G. F. Mathew’s life-histories of 
upwards until I got quite confused. At last I thought 
of looking lower, and then, just passing me, but a little 
out of reach, was a splendid large female Ornithoptera 
flapping lazily along. It must have flown quite close to 
me, and had I seen it sooner I should probably have had 
an easy shot at it. I followed as it flew by the edge of 
the forest just ahead of me, and presently it turned and 
went right across the open grassy space, keeping rather 
high. We continued in pursuit, the natives crying 
‘‘burrigee, burrigee, burrigee,” which meant “come 
down, come down’; but, it is needless to say, this 
had no effect on the butterfly, which kept along steadily 
until it reached one of the high trees with white-scented 
blossoms, and here it stopped and began fluttering from 
flower to flower. This tree was growing upon a slight 
eminence upon the bank of a small dry water-course. 
Upon the opposite side were forest-trees, and an under- 
growth of various shrubs, over which the Aristolochia, 
from which I took the larva of O. wrvilliana at Meoko 
last year, was climbing luxuriantly. We sat down near 
the tree and watched, and in a short time one, two, 
three glorious black and green male Ornithoptera joined 
the female, and commenced flying above her and 
following her from flower to flower. I now kept on the 
alert, for I knew it was likely that these attentions 
would make her fly low. In a short time one of the 
males left the female, and began feeding by himself, 
descending towards the lower branches as he did so. 
My net was fastened to the end of two joints of a 
bamboo-rod, making the handle eight feet long. I 
waited beneath the branch until at last the butterfly 
settled upon the very lowest flower. Still it was not 
quite near enough, but it was my only chance, and I 
thought by jumping up and striking at it I might 
possibly just reach it. It was an anxious moment. I 
took a big jump, made the stroke, and, to my intense 
delight, netted the black and golden-green beauty. After 
this we crossed to the opposite bank, and sat down and 
watched the others, which were still flying and feeding 
among the topmost branches. Constantly looking up 
was somewhat fatiguing, so 1 rested on my back for a 
few moments and closed my eyes. Presently there was 
a shout, and, sitting up, I saw a large female settle on a 
small bush about two feet from the ground the other 
