BUTTERFLY COLLECTING IN INDIA. 513 
with the short side down. A fairly stout, 
slightly absorbent paper should be used ; tho 
pages of this Journal would be excellent, not 
that I mean that they should ever be used 
for such a purpose, but it is the right kind of 
paper. Empties can be tied together, 50 in a 
packet ; full papers are best tied in packets 
of 6 to 10 by means of a bit of cotten 
folded round them the ends being wetted and 
twisted together. Given a cardboard tem- 
plate and a pair of scissors, a chuprassie can 
turn out the envelopes. Plenty of powdered 
napthalene should be put in the box. The 
butterfly should be put in the envelope with 
its antenne well folded back asin the sketch. 
The envelopes should be cut so that the flap 
has no printed matter on it and thereupon 
should be written the name of the butterfly, 
the locality, elevation and date. Don’t put 
more than one butterfly in an envelope. A 
pinched butterfly may ooze a little after death 
and it is a good thing to look inside when 
labelling and see that it is not going to stick 
to the paper. Another point to look out for 
is damp ; butterflies fresh caught and stowed 
away in a box are apt to get rotten and 
mouldy ; they should be given a chance to dry HE Q 
by putting the envelopes in a meatsafe or, in os ; 
damp climates, in an airtight box with calcium chloride driers. 
26. People, who have set out to write a book on the butterflies of India, have 
been unfortunate. lL, DéNiceville commenced ‘“ The Butterflies of India, Burma 
and Ceylon” in 1882 and by 1890 had completed 3 volumes dealing 
with the Danaids, Satyrids, Morphids, Nymphalids and Lycenids ; it is the best 
book on the subject, though the nomenclature is out of date : copies of it are now 
and then advertised in the “Pioneer” for about Rs, 150. F. Moore started “ Lepi- 
doptera Indica ” in 1890 and died after finishing two thirds of it ; the work has 
been completed by Col. C. Swinho:; it runs to ten Volumes and contains illustra- 
tions of every butterfly, but it cannot be obtained for less than £60. Col. C. T. 
Bingham published in 1905 and 1907 volumes 1 and 2 of the “ Butterflies ” in 
the “* Fauna of India ” series and then died ; the last Volume is being written by 
Capt. N. D. Riley of the British Museum ; the first two Volumes were issued ata 
guinea each and are excellent books with coloured plates, but they are out of 
print ; copies could probably be obtained through one of the London second- 
hand dealers in scientific books. Shortly before the war, Dr. A. Seitz of Germany 
commenced the publication of “‘ The Macro-lepidoptera of the World ”, a magni- 
ficent work with short descriptions and numerous coloured plates. The 
palzarctic section has been completed in about 100 parts at s.1/6 a part; the 
Indo-malayan section (Rhopalocera) is complete except for the Lycznids and 
Hesperids and will probably run to 150 parts at /2; it is extraordinarily good 
value for the money ; I obtain my copies, in the English translation, from Wat- 
kins and Doncaster. The following books published some years ago may be 
obtainable from second-hand dealers ; ‘“ Hesperiida Indice’, by Watson ; 
** Revision of the Oriental Hesperiide ’’, by Elwes and ‘Edwards; “ Revision 
of the Papilios” and “ Revision of the genus Charaxes ” by Rothschild and 
Jordan ; “‘ Revision of the Amblypodia group ” by Bethume Baker. In Volume 
21 of the Journal I published a list of the butterflies of India, which can be 
27 
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