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VI. Notes on the Butterflies observed in a tour through India 

 and Ceylon, 1903-4. By G. B. Longstaff, M.D., 

 Oxon. 



[Read December 7th, 1904.] 



INTRODUCTORY. 



What follows is an account of the entomological ex- 

 periences of a "jglobe-trotter," that is, of a traveller whose 

 main object was to take an all too rapid glance at the 

 scenery, the peoples, and the architecture of the places 

 visited, and whose route was planned with that object. 

 That I was able to give so much time to collecting was 

 due to the fact that, whereas my daughter and her com- 

 panion felt the heat so much that they usually kept within 

 doors from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., I, for my part, protected 

 by a " sola tope " of the " pigsticker " type, and a spinal 

 pad to my coat, suffered no serious inconvenience from the 

 sun's rays so long as I took active exercise. 



I sailed from England in September 1903 without the 

 slightest intention of collecting, and started accordingly 

 with no entomological outfit save half-a-dozen pill-boxes. 

 Not only was I without net and killing-bottle, I was with- 

 out books, and worse still, was in woeful ignorance of the 

 Rhopalocera of the Oriental Region. 



The day after landing we took train for Simla, and a 

 little south of Jhansi I was struck by the large numbers of 

 bright yellow butterflies along the railway banks — in all 

 probability Terias hecabe, L. October 5th found us at Kalka, 

 at the foot of " The Hills." Fortunately the new railway 

 was not yet open, so we had to be driven up the 58 miles 

 to Simla in a "tonga," or post-cart, by a wild-looking 

 hillman who handled the ponies magnificently. To one 

 fresh from Europe the sights on the road were truly mar- 

 vellous : long trains of wagons drawn by humped oxen 

 or by buffaloes ; natives in divers strange costumes, or 

 lack of costume ; flocks of goats and herds of cattle ; strings 

 of pack-mules, and, to crown all, long lines of solemn 

 camels, always hideous, yet always picturesque. However, 

 amid all these strange sights there was one other which 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1905. — PART I. (MAY) 



