vations were made, 1917-1918, at Maintirano, near the middle 

 of the W. coast of Madagascar. Similar observations on 

 Troides amphrysus flavicollis, Druce, had been recorded in 

 greater detail by S. B. J. Skertchly in Ann. Mag. N.H., Ser. 

 6, vol. IV, 1889, p. 218 :— " The male in basking along the 

 foliage on sunny river-sides [in British North Borneo] often 

 flies slowly along, moving only its fore wings, the hind wings 

 droojjing at an obtuse angle to the line of flight, trailing like 

 a rich robe of golden silk. ... In such flight the fore wings 

 only move through a small angle." Speaking of the hair- 

 fringed inner marginal fold (found in males of the Aristolochia 

 or PharmacopJiagus Swallowtails) Skertchly wrote of the 

 same Troides (I. c.) : — " In normal flight and when at rest 

 this pouch is closed, but when the hind wing is drooped the 

 pouch opens. It may therefore be a scent-pouch and this 

 peculiar flight the normal courting flight." 



Mr. E. E. Green said that he had frequently noticed the 

 curiously laboured flight of Troides darsius. Gray, in Ceylon ; 

 but had never formed any theory to account for it. Prof. 

 Poulton's remarks now afforded a perfect explanation of the 

 peculiarity. Mr. Green had noticed the flight more par- 

 ticularly when the male was courting a female. On one 

 occasion, while riding his bicycle along the main drive of the 

 Peradeniya Gardens, he came upon a courting couple hovering 

 at about the height of his head. As he passed, he put up his 

 hand and actually caught the male, by the under part of the 

 thorax, between his finger and thumb ! 



Mr. T. H. L. Grosvenor said that in the common Papilio 

 (Laertias) polytes, L., it was quite a usual occurrence for the 

 males to carry the secondaries apparently motionless, especiaUy 

 during feeding when flying from flower to flower; also, when 

 settled on a bloom, it would let these wings drooj), as if they 

 were quite useless, or broken, at the same time slowly opening 

 and shutting the primaries. Such movements and attitudes 

 were not seen in any other species, nor were they witnessed in 

 the female of jwlytes, which are more retiring than the males, 

 or in the males themselves when flying in the open and round 

 muddy pools. Mr. Grosvenor's observations were confirmed 

 by Mr.JoY. 



