the Rhopahcera of Northern Borneo. 43 



more particularly wants, as they all dash, and circle, and twist' 

 and dance about together, usually just out of hisreach,the result 

 frequently being that while endeavouring to single out one 

 from the quantities of commoner things, others just as good 

 dash from behind over his shoulder, or pass in some other 

 such way, that he rarely gets a strike at them. At such a 

 bush lately I caught over thirty kinds of butterflies fresh to 

 me in five or six days, and this after collecting off and on for 

 the last eight years in neiglibouriug districts. The profusion 

 of species in the tropics is so great, in I'act, that one rarely 

 takes a walk in a fairly good locality without either noticing 

 or taking something fresh. 



All flowers are not equally attractive, so that when once 

 a bush of the kind is encountered the collector should just 

 stick to it regularly till its bloom is over. I have but 

 once or twice found such a bush, and only on the occasion 

 noted above was I able to visit it on more than one day. 

 When travelling up rivers some of the creepers which drape 

 the trees on the edge of the water are occasionally seen in 

 blossom : there is one of these of a bright scarlet which is much 

 frequented by butterflies ; this bloom is in a pyramidical 

 shape, 15 or 18 feet in breadth at the bottom and narrowing 

 upwards to a height of 60 feet or so above the water, the 

 whole front being alive with butterflies. 



Besides flowers there are few other things tliat are 

 much frequented by butterflies. Some of gross tastes are 

 attracted by various decaying substances, while chewed sugar- 

 cane placed in forest-paths will always bring some species to 

 it. If staying long at any place in the forest it sometimes 

 pays to fell an acre or so of virgin forest in the neighbourhood 

 of clearings ; butterflies which get above the top of the forest 

 are much in the predicament of being at sea, and will make 

 for and fly down into a clearing as a man adrift in a boat 

 would steer for an island. If too far away from old clearings, 

 however, most of the wanderers will have come to grief or 

 spread too much before flying close to it, and it will be months 

 before many butterflies have found it out ; but such a vast 

 unbroken virgin forest as this implies is rarely found any- 

 where except in one part of Borneo. 



I have very nearly abandoned the idea of there being such 

 a thing as a really rare butterfly. However much one may 

 prize some special specimen which stands alone in one's 

 cabinet, for years may be, the time comes sooner or later that 

 a locality is found where it is abundant enough, or some 

 brother collector from a distance tells you that your rarity is 

 one of his " commonest things." 



