54 A Visit to Damma Island : 



could be heard everywhere, especially in the early morning 

 and towards sunset, though in the thick jungle they were by 

 no means easy to see. The crop of nearly every specimen 

 shot was found to contain one or more entire nutmegs, 

 evidently from wild trees, as the nutmeg is not cultivated on 

 Damma. These imparted a peculiarly delicate flavour to the 

 flesh of the pigeons, which were consequently the objects of 

 eager pursuit by our sportsmen. A very beautiful little 

 green fruit-dove {Ptilopus xanthog 'aster) was not rarely seen, 

 and flocks of small and very noisy green parrots frequented 

 the tops of the tall mango-trees, quite out of gunshot. I did 

 not meet with any white cockatoos, which are said to be 

 found on the island. 



Butterflies were tolerably numerous, especially along the 

 course of the stream ; but I was unfortunately not able to 

 secure examples of the three finest species seen. These were 

 a large light-coloured Charaxes and two handsome Papilios — 

 one a large black-and-white species evidently allied to the 

 Australian P. erechtheus, the other being, I feel almost sure, 

 the P. aberrans, Buth, recorded from Timor-Laut. Some 

 twenty-five species in all were observed, the most noteworthy 

 being two or three forms of PJiqyloea, a red Danais (Salatura 

 larate?isis, Butl.), a very pretty Neptis, a Precis (probably 

 P. timorensis, Wall.), two or three species of Terias, and 

 several Lycamida?. Nearly all these appear to be closely 

 allied to or identical with the species collected by Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes in Timor-Laut, and described by Mr. Butler (P. Z. S. 

 1883, pp. 366, 367). Not the least interesting capture was 

 a large light-coloured female specimen of that wandering 

 butterfly Anosia plexippus, L., which I shortly afterwards 

 met with abundantly in the islands of Amboyna and Ternate, 

 many thousands of miles away from its original American 

 home. 



The Coleoptera were also well represented both in species 

 and individuals, and I found two recently made clearings in 

 which the stumps and such felled trees as had been allowed 

 to remain yielded a good harvest of small but very interesting 

 beetles under the loose bark and among decaying leaves and 

 fungi. Two grand Buprestidas, Gyphogastra abdominalis 

 and Pseudochrysodema Walkeri, recently described by 

 Mr. C. O. Waterhouse (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, 

 vol. x. pp. 410—412), were not rare here, flying in the bright 

 morning sunshine and settling on logs and stumps. These 

 beetles appeared to take a great fancy to one particular stump 

 of a large Ficus tree near the top of a steep bank, and not 

 easily reached ; but, unlike another large Buprestid already 



