Habits of certain Bornean Butterflies. 217 
approached by many wooers, and we may reasonably suppose 
finally selects according to her or his individual taste. 
But it is not so easy thus to argue about O. Brookeana. 
That the female wooed the male was evident; she came for 
him. That she chose him was quite as clear to my mind— 
the coquetting flight, following his every turn for twenty 
minutes, the drooped abdomen, said so almost as plainly as 
words. Can we suppose it was a deliberate choice after 
visiting many others? That she carried in her mind not only 
an ideal but the memory of other possible husbands who fell 
short of her ideal, which this one most nearly approached ? 
Can we also believe the males, more beautiful, more active, 
more numerous, had lost all eagerness, and, like Shetlanders 
ashore, were content to be passive and petted, though wives 
were so scarce and so necessary? It certainly looked to me 
as though, being mature, she accepted the first male she met. 
When, too, as we have seen, there seems so little relation 
between the habits, beauty, or numbers of the sexes and the 
sex of the wooer, it becomes difficult to see why we should 
introduce the complex machinery of sexual selection to per- 
form what the ordinary laws of evolution seem equally capable 
of carrying out. 
It may be I witnessed an abnormal case; but this is un- 
likely. 
Leptocircus curtus.—This butterfly is not at all common in 
British North Borneo, and I have only seen it on streams and 
rivers in rocky places well open to sunshine. 
It is an exceedingly swift flier, darting with rapidly 
vibrating wings from point to point, dashing backwards and 
forwards over a particular patch of sand like a dragon-fly, and 
making considerable journeys in the day. Like many other 
butterflies it is methodical, frequenting the same places at the 
same hour; so that when once seen I could always find it 
again. It is an early riser, and may be caught drinking 
before nine o’clock. It delights in hot sunshine and is com- 
paratively sluggish on dull days. 
When drinking it has a most remarkable habit of ejecting 
the water from behind. Pushing its proboscis into the wet 
sand it takes long steady drinks, and pumps the water out 
astern in rhythmic squirts, forming quite a little stream. It 
can project the water full 3 inches. At such times it can be 
approached closely if no sudden movement be made. It does 
not always pump, and I have often watched for it in vain *. 
* My friend Mr. J. Hayward Allard has recently noticed this habit in 
P. sarpedon, but the volume of water is less and the strokes slower than 
with Leptocircus. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. iv. 15 
