( 18 ) 



white ; lots of male hobleyi, PI. macarista or poggei, and 

 what I believed to be intermediate Pseudacraeas ! Still, I 

 send more PL fellus and Ps. terra. I said last Sunday I had 

 seen no A. alciope in the forest. I saw two males to-day, and 

 caught one, and believe I saw a female : anyhow, it is an 

 addition to the list. I got another poor Pr. rauana to-day, 

 and some more I'lanema arenaria, which I had not sent before 

 Dec. 3." 



[xxi 



The following extract from the same letter of Dec. 10 

 referred to the four wings of a male Acraea orina. Hew. 

 The detached wings were exhibited l>y Professor Poulton, 

 together with the left forewing "f EwraUa authedon, Doubl., 

 found on the ground by Dp. Carpenter on Dec. 17. 



" 1 found Borne wings of a red Acraea neatly clipped off 

 lying together on a leaf, and a bird-dropping beside, as if a 

 bird had dropped both ! I send the wings. It is a curious 

 thing that out of 40-50 bee-eaters (of three species) I have 

 shot, to see if Qloasina could be found in their stomachs, never 

 a single one has eaten a Lepidopteron ! They seem to live, 

 here, entirely on Dragonilies and II ymenoptera. True, I have 

 shot most of them on the shore, and not in the forest where 

 they are high up out of reach ; bul I suppose the same ones 

 frequent both shore and forest. It is rather curious they will 

 eat the hwjest dragonflies — larger than the big brown chap at 

 home ! " 



The following extracts were from the letter dated Dec. 17, 

 describing the last of these three days' captures : — 



"Dee. 17. To day (Sunday) I bad my last collecting in 

 Damba forest, with satisfactory results. There were great 

 numbers of the pale Pkmema armaria, of which I send a 

 number. Curiously enough, on my way to the forest, I saw 

 one in the 'jungle,' where I have never seen it before. You 

 will see a very beautiful specimen of the dark I 'sen, {acraea 

 obecura. On the wing, this Pseudaeraea far more closely 

 resembles the pale PI. arenaria (of which there were swarms 

 today) than it does the darker /'/. paragea. Both arenaria 

 and obscura have rather a translucent, pale effect (the little 

 yellow on the Pseudaeraea shows up very plainly) ; whereas in 



