78 
scious of my proximity to it. Noticing strange and unaccountable 
movements—sundry jerks and probings with its proboscis—I quietly 
sat down near it, in order to watch it more closely. I observed that 
every second or two a drop of pure liquid was squirted (not exuded 
merely) from the tip of its abdomen. I picked up a leaf that was 
lying near, and inserted the edge of it between the insect’s body and 
the ground, so as to catch the liquid. Unfortunately I had no watch 
with me at the time nor means of measuring liquids, but I reckoned 
that about thirty drops were emitted per minute. I held the leaf for 
about five minutes, as nearly as I could reckon, and at the end of 
that time there was caught in it about a salt-spoon full of what seemed 
to be pure water, without either taste or colour. After watching the. 
butterfly for a time I seized it by the wings between my thumb and 
fingers with the greatest ease, so utterly lost did it appear to be to 
what was going on near it. In another spot I saw as many as sixteen 
of these large butterflies within the space of a square foot, all engaged 
in the same strange action. Some of them emitted the liquid more 
frequently than others ; and one of them squirted the liquid so as to 
drop fully a third of an inch beyond the point on the ground perpen- 
dicular with the end of its body. It was at this spot that I saw the 
second species of butterfly alluded to, dppeas sada, also engaged in 
the same curious proceeding.” 
It is many years ago since I first saw a fine male Apatura iris 
drinking from the water that had collected in a rut by the side of one 
of the rides in Chattenden Woods, but this it would seem is a fre- 
quent habit of this species. Hewitson writes that at Kissingen in 
Bavaria, in July, 1839, after a long flight on the outskirts of the wood 
the “‘ Emperors” would enter its more shaded recesses, and, settling 
wherever moisture was to be met with, would protrude into it their 
long trunks, and were soon heedless of hisapproach. Seating himself 
near a swamp-hole, he selected the finest specimens as they settled 
down, and watched them as they closed their wings. So intent were 
they on their occupation that they would usually permit him to take 
them between his finger and thumb, and they were so numerous that 
he had no less than seven under a small net at one time, and even 
then they showed but little anxiety to get away. De Nicéville, too, 
has noticed the habit among the Sumatran Apaturids, and says that 
the males of Apatura sumatrensis like to go to muddy or swampy 
spots on the roads ; whilst the females are never seen on the roads, 
but fly through the jungle. /wnonta atlites, too, is very fond of 
water, near which if it be running, orin the neighbourhood of ditches, 
it may always be found. Regarding the love of Apatura iris for 
moisture, Kane says, “It settles down on a moist spot to drink, or 
upon dung, or upon decaying animal matter, which seems to attract 
it. Kirby quotes the experience of a German naturalist who, collect-’ 
ing in South Russia and perspiring freely, became an object of 
attention to numbers of this insect which settled upon his clothes.” 
Mitchell observes that in July, 1887, whilst collecting in the New 
