42 Messrs. W. L. Distant and W. B. Pryer on 



however, should not indulge too great expectations of what he 

 hopes to catch. The glowing pictures of abundant insect-life 

 which most travellers, and not a few naturalists, draw, have 

 been but very rarely realized in my experience. When once 

 the more common species have been obtained, it is difficult, 

 under ordinary favourable circumstances, to catch more than 

 ten specimens that you require in a day, and not even that if 

 you are at all unlucky. I remember on one occasion, in the 

 Philippine Islands, at a place where the forest was a good deal 

 opened up wilh clearings (just the place for butterflies appa- 

 rently), on three consecutive days I only took four that I wanted. 

 The great thing for a collector to find is some well-situated 

 and attractive bush or creeper in flower ; there he will catch 

 in one day more butterflies, and choicer ones, than in a week's 

 collecting anywhere else. Strange as it may seem, such an. 

 attraction is but rarely found ; when it is, however, the fun is 

 fast and furious, twenty or more butterflies are always in 

 sight at once, and the difficulty is to pick out those you want 

 from the crowd of commoner ones. Papilio dashes about at full 

 speed, settles only for a few seconds at a time, and, with 

 elevated quivering wings, rapidly sips at the blossoms with 

 its long proboscis. Farthenos sails by on down-pointed 

 nearly stationary wings or keeps flying from and to the 

 flowers in small circles and indulges in frequent fights with 

 its own species. Pieris flies from flower to flower rather 

 quietly. Hestia^ with slow flaps and an occasional soar, keeps 

 aloof from the flowers, but is nearly always to be seen in their 

 close neighbourhood. Ornitlioptera usually soars high aloft, 

 not frequently settling, but generally manages sooner or later 

 to bring itself within reach of the net. Hesperia shoots with 

 an almost invisible bullet-like flight from flower to flower and 

 stands on them for a few seconds at a time, with rapidly 

 vibrating wings ; many small Lyccence flit in and out amongst 

 the leaves, settling on flowers usually in the shade. With the 

 exception of the handsome Cethosia and one or two others the 

 bulk of the Nymphalidas do not seem to come much to flowers, 

 though Cirrochroa is generally to be seen flying rather rapidly 

 past in a straightforward sort of way, while an Atliema or two 

 may be caught in the course of the morning. If HypoLim- 

 nas^ Neptisy or Euthalia are seen it is more because the position 

 is a favourable one than that the flowers are an attraction. 

 As the bush is usually some 25 feet high, and butterflies 

 frequent the top more than the lower ])ortions of it^ the 

 collector very soon finds that he has strained the muscles 

 of the back of his neck and made himself dizzy by looking 

 upwards and following the movements of the insect he 



