38 Dr. G. B. Longstaff's Notes on 



that month I took but about balf-a-dozen flies. Mr. H. P. 

 Gosse, in bis altogether admirable " Naturalist's Sojourn in 

 Jamaica," expresses his surprise at the scarcity of insects, 

 in words that seem to merit quotation. " I had left 

 England with high expectations of the richness of the 

 West Indian entomology : large and gaily-coloured beetles, 

 I supposed, would be crawling on almost every shrub, 

 gorgeous butterflies be filling the air, moths be swarming 

 about the forest-edges at night, and caterpillars be beaten 

 from every bush. These expectations were far from 

 being realised : ... in general butterflies are to be ob- 

 tained only casually. Moths are still more rare . . . 

 in general beetles and the other orders are extremely 

 scarce, and especially Diptera ; I have often been astonished 

 at the paucity of these, as compared with their abundance 

 in Canada and the Southern United States. . . . One 

 may often walk a mile, — I do not mean in the depth of 

 the forest, but in situations comparatively open, beneath 

 an unclouded sun, — and not see more than a dozen 

 specimens of all orders" (pp. 94, 95). 



I was told that something between sixty and seventy 

 species of butterflies occur in Jamaica, and it is a surpris- 

 ing fact that such a large tropical island should not pro- 

 duce more species than Great Britain. During my ten 

 weeks' collecting I obtained forty-seven species, as com- 

 pared with thirty-six species that are to be found in the 

 one Devonshire parish of Mortehoe. Indeed for the most 

 part I found Jamaica poorer in butterflies than Mortehoe 

 in the summer. There were but two occasions on which 

 the numbers were comparable, both near Port Antonio. 



On the afternoon of February 25th I was ferried over to 

 Navy Island. The Trade-wind was blowing rather strongly, 

 and the only sheltered spot was some swampy ground to 

 the leeward of a bluff; here Anartia jatrophie, Linn., was 

 in the greatest profusion, many being busy about the 

 flowers of the J^ogv]ooA.-iYee^{Hxmatoxylon campeacJiianum, 

 Linn.), with them were a few Dione vanillse, Linn., and one 

 Precis lavinia, Cram. 



The other time was on March 3rd, near the top of 

 " Shotover," to the west of Port Antonio. Here, about 

 1000 feet above sea-level, on a spur of a somewhat 

 higher hill, commanding a glorious view of sea and coast, 

 was a steep slope with an aspect a little south of east. 

 An acre or two of this slope, partly sheltered by trees, 



