210 Mr. S. B. J. Skertchly on the 



heavy uight dews have evaporated and the jungle is as dry 

 as it ever gets in this hot-house climate. They increase in 

 numbers, until about ten or eleven o'clock a maximum is 

 reached, and a lull sets in for a couple of hours, though there 

 are still many about. From one till two o'clock they swarm 

 again, and then gradually decrease in numbers, until soon after 

 four most of them have gone, and the crepuscular forms like 

 Melonifis and Amathusia appear soon after. A passing cloud 

 or shower causes a sudden disappearance of nearly all the 

 species, though a few brave the gloom and rain. 



The most persistent species I know is Ornithoptera jiavi- 

 collisj which is up earliest, retires latest, scorns the clouds, 

 and may be seen, dripping wet, lazily flapping along in a 

 smart shower. The llestias emulate it with considerable 

 success, and some of tlie Danais genus are very early risers, 

 but pitch during cloud and rain, though often on exposed 

 shrubs, where, with folded wings, they patiently get wet. 

 The bright brown Pandita senora is another early riser, flies 

 low, and delights to bask in the early morning sun, and in 

 the afternoon mounts high like the Euplceas and Ideopsis. 



North Borneo^ especially in its eastern part, where my 

 observations were chiefly made, is practically one unbroken 

 virgin forest, intersected by innumerable creeks and small 

 streams and some fine rivers, such as the Labuk, Kinaba- 

 tangau, and Segama. The average height of the forest is 

 between 150 and 200 feet, and, save where a tree has fallen, 

 the sun's rays never penetrate, and all is shade, warm, moist, 

 and equable. On the banks of the rivers and their larger 

 tributaries sunshine is abundant, wdiile over the smaller creeks 

 the meeting branches form a canopy almost as dense as in 

 the forest itself. 8ave along the larger rivers and on the 

 coast there are no inhabitants, and even there the native 

 clearings are very small. Even around the capital, Sanda- 

 kan, virgin forest begins within a mile, and in the forest there 

 are no clearings w hatever, and nature, untouched by man, can 

 be contemplated in its purity. 



But in the forest depths butterflies are rare, and the fol- 

 lowing genera alone supply true forest species, that never 

 seek the sunny river-banks or bright glades and clearings : — 



Nymphalid^. 

 Raoadia. Thaumantis. 



Neorina. Clerome. 



Amathusia. Xanthotfeuia. 



Ebycinid^. 

 Abisara. 



