^54 



NATURE 



[January io, 1S95 



geometrical contact. No trace of the planet's periphery could 

 be seen when it left the solar disc, alihough it was carefully 

 looked for. 



The Government .\slronomerat Sydney, Mr. II. C. Russell, 

 states that fifteen photographs were taken of the transit of 

 Mercury. He reports that as the planet crossed the sun it 

 presented the appearance of a round anl intensely black disc 

 without any fringe such as has been noticed in former transits, 

 and owing to the unsteady state of the air towards the close of 

 contact, the "black drop" phenomenon took place, preventing 

 clear definition. 



.\N Important .\steroid. — The minor planet BE 1894 

 proves to be a very important member of the community to 

 which it belongs. M. Tisserand remarks, in Complts reitiius 

 for December 26, that, of all the asteroids, it has the smallest 

 perihelion distance, leaving out of count Brucia Pi»), of which 

 the elements arc very uncertain. When HE is at its descend- 

 ing node, its distance from the orbit of the earth is only 067 

 the radius of this orbit. On account of this circumstance, the 

 asteroid is most favourably situated for the determination of the 

 solar parallax. The elements given by M. Tisserand are as 

 follows : — 



1894 November 47 Paris Mean Time. 



m ... 23 18 38-5 



»■ - 357 25 535 ) 



ft ... 212 36 51-4 > Mean Eq. 1894. 



I ... 23 s 57 I 



<(> ... 18 4 81 



li ... I002"I5I 



log ii ... 0366049 



Prof. Adams' Collecti:d Mkmoirs. — .\ note in the 

 Obserualory informs us that I'rof. K. A. .Sampson, formerly 

 Isaac Newton Student at Cimbridge, is gradually reducing to 

 order the la ge quan'ity of MS.S. left by Prof, .\dams. The 

 memoirs relating to lunarlheory have been completely separated 

 and arranged, and the lectures on Jupiter's sat'-llites are also 

 well advanced. Memoirs on the solution of the infinite de- 

 terminant, and others on some small matters, have been 

 separated from incidental and preparatory work; but a consider- 

 able quantity of matter is si ill outstanding, so it may be one or 

 two years more before the examination can be completed, and 

 the collected works be ready for publication. 



THE BIRD-WINGED BUTTERFLIES OF THE 

 EAST. 



T N the days of Curtis and Stephens, the late Mr. \V. C. 

 ■*• Ilewitson was a diligent collector and observer of British 

 insects of all orders, and likewise an ornithologist, who pub- 

 lished several editions of a well-known work on British biids' 

 eggs. But the day came when he was to discover, as he 

 says in one of his own publications, that a butteifly might be 

 beautiful, though it was not a British species ; and he became 

 ihnroughly infatuated with these beautiful thing":, lo the study 

 and illustration of which he devoted the remainder of his life. 

 And this is how it came about, as he used to relate to those 

 who had the privilege of the acquaintance of a kind old en- 

 thusiast, who5c work was of immense value to the progress of 

 entomology in its day, though he was unable to sympathise 

 with or to appreciate the vast revolution in nioHcrn biology 

 which many men with whom he was intimate and men, too, 

 not much younger than himself, with Darwin, Wallace, and 

 Bates at their head— succeeded in effecting in a comparatively 

 short time. 



<Jne Hay of the days, a« it says in the " Thousand and One 

 Night.s," he happened to be at Stevens's Auction Room«, when 

 a lot was put op containing lievcral species of the well-known 

 \^tna% .liiilfi/ia, lliibncr, ot I/elerochioa, Boisduval, as it was 

 then called, which replaces our Kuropean While Admirals in 

 .South America. The butterflies attracted his attention, for at that 

 time it was a novelty lo him lo see a nuinbcr of butterflies so 

 clohly resembling each other, and yet quite distinct ; and he 

 bought the lot. lie turned round, and saw Prof. WeslwooH, 

 who said to him, " What, are you buying Imtternie-i ?" "Ye*, 

 I am," he answered ; and ihiis he commenced the formation of 

 hit great collection of butterflies, now in the British .Museum, 

 which was fed by the cream of the expeditions of Wallace and 



NO. 13-5, VOL. 51] 



Bates, and remained unrivalled up to the day of his death, in 

 1S78, though there are now several collections in England, 

 France, and Germany which surpass it. 



The exact dale when this epoch-making event in the 

 history of the study of butterflies occurred, we do not know. 

 It is true that the first paper published by Ilewitson 

 on exotic butterflies related to the genus Hclerochroa, and 

 was published in the Anna's aiiJ Magazine of Naluiaf 

 History in 1S47 ; but in the previous year, Edward Doubleday 

 had commenced his great work on the " Genera of Diurnal 

 Lepidoptera," the letterpress of which was c impleted after his 

 death by Westwood ; and Ilewitson executed all the plates, as 

 joint author. It is. therefore, probable that Ilewitson had 

 already commenced the formation of his collection before that 

 time, especially as his own great work on exotic butterflies was 

 commenced before the actual completion of the " Genera." 



Yet, since the death of Ilewitson, new countries have been 

 opened up, and wonderful butterflies have reached Europe, 

 never dreamed of by Ilewitson, or which remained unattainable 

 objects of his desire, to the last. Chief among these may be 

 mentioned the butterfl es of Central .\sia, a terra incopiila 

 except for Kversmann's and Nordmann's papers, in Ilewitson's 

 time ; and the butterflies of the Eastern .Archipelago, (or the older 

 naturalists, and even Wallace and Lorquin, much as they were 

 able to accomplish, only succeeded in sampling some few 

 islands, and many others now known to produce some of 

 the strangest and grandest butterflies in existence, remained 

 unvisited and unexplored. 



Ctiief among the butterflies of these islands .ire the grand 

 species to which Hois luval applied the generic name of Orni- 

 thoptera, or bird-winged butterflies, of which only a few, and 

 those not the most remarkable, are found on the mainland of 

 India, the Malay Peninsula, and .Suuih China. Many of the 

 species are very closely allied, but others are so diflVrent that 

 they can hardly be regarded as congeneric ; and it will be wall 

 to discuss them by groups. 



First of all, we may divide them into the black and yellow 

 species, and those with black and green, orange, or blue males ; 

 and each of these two main groups includes a variety of species, 

 which are hardly all congeneric. 



Two species only, 0. Priamus and 0. Helena, were known 

 to Linne. Several more were figured and described before 

 the end of the last century ; but only eight species were de- 

 scribed as late as 1836, and thiiugh several others were after- 

 wards described, Ilewitson's collect!' n only included eighteen, 

 counting several forms which he treated as varieties. Now, 

 however, Mr. Rippon's large work, " IconesOrnilhopterorum," 

 at present in course of pulilication, is intended to extend to 

 eighty folio plates. Hut there is always some difliculty in 

 determining the exact number of species, for these butterflies 

 are variable, and in the numerous islands of the East there are 

 a great number of closely allied local race;, and we are hardly 

 in a position at present to determine whether it is best lo treat 

 them all as distinct species, or as different formsof two or three, 

 and (specially is this the case with the group of Ornilhoptera 

 Priamus. 



It will be best lo commence with the black and yellow 

 species, which are found on the Asiatic Continent, and the 

 Mal.ay Islands, and therefore in nearer and more acessible 

 localities than any of the green species, except 0. Brookcana. 

 They are also found in the .Molucca^, tVc, but less numerously, 

 being more abundant in the Malay Islands. 



Of this group, Oriiillio/>tera Pompcns, (_'ramer, from Java, 

 may be regarded as typical. The males of this and the allied 

 species are of a velvety black, with the ncrvures more or less 

 bordered with grey, and the spaces between the ends of the 

 veins on the hind margin, bordered with white. The hind 

 wings are of a beaulilul golden yellow, intersected with the 

 black veins, and bordererl with black along the hind and inner 

 margins. The inner margin forms a fold which conceals the 

 brown scent-bearing scales, and is fringed with long hairs.* On 

 the inner margin, the black border projects into the wing in a 

 series of long cones between the nervures. The females are 

 similar, but the grey markings of the fore wings are more 

 extcndeil, and on the hind wings the scent organs are wanting, 

 and there i^ a row of black spots opposite the cones of the 

 Irordcr, which are often connected into a continuous series, as 



I Scr, for A fuller detcription of llic scent -oreani in i^rntlhoflern^ Haasc^ 

 " Corrcspondcniblatl dcscntomologischcn Vcrcinn, Iris lu Dresden," I. pp. 

 93-94- 



