270 Mr. H. J. Elwes’ catalogue of the 
geographical distribution than to systematic Ento- 
mology, my readers will not be too critical on this 
point, especially when they remember that no revision 
of the genera of butterflies exists more recent than that 
of Doubleday and Hewitson, to whom many of the 
species and supposed genera included in this list were 
entirely unknown ; and though, for convenience’ sake, I 
have followed the nomenclature and arrangement of 
Marshall and de Nicéville’s work on the Butterflies of 
India so far as it extends, yet, however painstaking and 
admirable a book this may be, neither the time nor the 
man has yet arrived to do such work as it should be, 
and one day will be, done. 
The materials at my disposal have been very ample, 
and, though it is a matter of great regret to me that the 
very large and fine collections made by Dr. Lidderdale 
and the late Mr. Atkinson in Sikkim should have been 
dispersed, without any complete record of their contents, 
yet Moller’s indefatigable efforts have probably missed 
very few species procured by them; and, as he has 
freely placed at my disposal his unrivalled knowledge of 
Sikkim butterflies, I am able to give the range and 
season of most of them with tolerable exactness, which 
is of far greater importance to Science than the addition 
of a few bare names to a list which is already so 
extensive. 
My own travels in Sikkim commenced in 1870, when 
I spent six months, from May to October inclusive, in 
the country, and visited the interior with Mr. Blanford, 
of the Geological Survey, when we went over a great 
part of the ground which had previously only been 
visited by Sir J. Hooker and the late Mr. Campbell. In 
this year I devoted my attention mainly to Ornithology, 
and on my return gave my collection of Lepidoptera to 
Mr. Godman. In the winter and spring of 1876, and 
again in 1880—81, I revisited Sikkim, but, owing to its 
being the dead season for insects on both these occasions, 
I added but little to my knowledge of them, though I 
became possessed of a very large collection formed be- 
tween 1870 and 1881 by Mr. Wilson, which contained 
many species now very rare or extinct in British Sikkim. 
I also received, from my late friend Mr. L. Mandelli, many 
fine species of moths, and began, with Mr. Gammie’s 
kind assistance, to employ native collectors in the interior 
