MY FIRST EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA 47 



why these are called " day-flying moths," because 

 in my experience they have to be beaten out of the 

 undergrowth, and are not to be discovered flying 

 about in the daytime. The popular division of 

 butterflies and moths into two classes of lepidoptera, 

 one of which flies by day and the other by night, one 

 of which is bright-coloured and the other dull-coloured, 

 is not at all correct. There are some moths which 

 fly by day and some which are very bright-coloured, 

 and there are some butterflies which only fly by night. 

 Whilst I had been in Northern Australia I had 

 encountered that great enemy of the white man in 

 the tropics, malarial fever, but my experience of it 

 had been of comparatively trifling inconvenience. 

 Here at Nadi I had been established only three weeks 

 when I suffered from a very severe attack of malaria. 

 Since then, all the time that I have been in New 

 Guinea, I have been subject to attacks of this fever, 

 but I am at least counted to be lucky in that I never 

 suffer from it when I am away from the South Sea 

 Islands. But the first hard attack of malarial fever 

 was very disquieting. Shivering fits were followed 

 by fits of sleepiness. At one moment it was impossible 

 to get warm, at another moment the skin seemed to 

 be burning, as if one were being roasted in a fire. A 

 terrible thirst would be followed by severe nausea. 

 Then finally a sweating fit would mark the end of 

 an attack, but there would follow sometimes severe 

 headache and great weakness. 



