~ Lepidoptera of Sikkim. 409 
August at low elevations, 2—4000 ft., where it frequents 
the banks of streams in hot, thoroughly tropical valleys, 
and flies slowly about the water-side, resting sometimes 
on mud and pebbles almost in the water. Some speci- 
mens of the variety with yellow on the abdominal margin 
occur here with the pure black one, and some have 
white or only a yellow tinge in the same part of the 
hind wing. But neither Moller or I have ever taken 
females with the males in these places, and all the 
five females I possess of this form were procured from 
native collectors, and vary in the same particulars 
as the males. I never saw a typical Hlorsfeldii at these 
low elevations, but found it in the dense forest on 
Sinchul at 6 to 8000 ft., where it settles on paths and 
in damp places on the ground, and flies slowly in 
the same manner as ithiela. The only female of this 
form which I got was taken by my native assistant at 
an elevation of nearly 11,000 ft. on the road between 
Tonglo and Sundukpho, where it had probably been 
driven up by the wind, and both this and another 
similar female given me by Moller are intermediate 
between the ithicla females and those of the typical 
Horsfeldii_ from the North-west Himalayas. In the 
Khasia hills I was fortunate enough to find Belladonna 
in its breeding-places, which are the small patches of 
natural forest left on the higher parts of the hills at 
from 4000 to 6400 ft. elevation. Here itisin some places 
abundant, and I found the females almost as plentiful 
as the males. In the wood which crowns the summit 
of the Shillong peak I had several Opportunities of 
observing the habits of the insect, which are quite 
different from what I saw in Sikkim. They fly on sunny 
days about the tops of the trees, and make little excur- 
sions into the open country round, always returning to 
the shelter of the wood, and frequently descending to 
settle on the flowers of a species of Euonymus, and of a 
large species of Scabiosa which grew on its outskirts. 
The flight is slow, graceful, and soaring, and the 
butterflies are not at all shy. Here I found hardly 
any variation in the insects, all being true ithiela, 
excepting two specimens, which were slightly tinted with 
yellow on the abdominal margin. I figure a female of 
the Khasia form, which has also been named berind: by 
Moore, and a female of the Horsfeldii type from Sikkim, 
