( xxi ) 



to Castile on the Old River. San Pedro does not appear to 

 be such, an entomological paradise as Dr. Davis fondly hoped, 

 but he found a number of very interesting species and has 

 sent home some useful notes about them. On his journey 

 Dr. Davis noticed that the river twisted and turned about a 

 great deal, sometimes due east and again due west and all 

 variations between these points, but the general direction 

 was more or less north-west. The weather proved about as 

 bad as it could be, with heavy showers every day, and every 

 night terrific thunderstorms with torrents of rain. This made 

 the jungle paths so full of mud and water that Dr. Davis and 

 his companion were all the time walking well over their 

 ankles in that unpleasant mixture, varied occasionally by 

 having to cross small streams which took them up to the 

 knees. They walked for hours through these paths and 

 explored all of them, but with very poor results. Collecting 

 under such circumstances is, of course, far from pleasant, and 

 the doctor had to put up with many discomforts and attacks 

 from insects, which resulted in an illness after his return to 

 Belize, which kept him in bed for three weeks. He maae his 

 temporary headquarters in an old wooden store-room, built 

 on posts ten feet from the ground. This was situated on the 

 river bank, close to where he landed and about a mile from 

 San Pedro. He found many of the commoner butterflies of 

 the neighbourhood at this place, but very few — only four — 

 species that were new to him. At the landing-place Papilio 

 marchandi was found, not uncommonly, on the muddy bank 

 by the river, and in company with it were Papilio thoas and 

 P. androgens, these two much more commonly, and P. macro- 

 silaus, rare, with countless hundreds of Callidryas philea, 

 C. argante, etc. The Papilios were very wary and could only 

 be captured with great difficulty. Dr. Davis found, towards 

 the end of his stay, that it was a good plan to put a brokeii 

 specimen on a part of the mud that could be conveniently 

 reached and then to lay in wait for them till they came to in- 

 spect it. He writes : "In this way I did better, and I wish 

 I had thought of the plan sooner. There was a big mud pool 

 right in front of our quarters which also attracted these 

 Papilios, but I found them very shy and quick to take to the 



