MISCELLANEOUS NOTES, 497 



The right to collect the nests is annually sold by Government, and thirty 

 years ago used to realise from 200 to 250 rupees, but the value of the right 

 has declined very much and this year only 41 rupees were obtained. The 

 explanation offered by my informant was that the birds are forsaking the 

 island because they do not like the proximity of the lighthouse. I suggest- 

 ed an alternative explanation by telling him that, if he regularly ate all 

 the eggs that his hens laid and never gave them a chance of rearing a 

 chicken, his poultry-yard would die out in time. He seemed to think that 

 there was something to be said for my view, but preferred his own. 



The nests, when collected, are taken to Bombay by the same class of men, 

 I suppose, as those who go about the coast collecting sharks' fins and fish 

 sounds, and are ultimately exported to China. 



E. H. AITKEN. 



No. XV.— DESCRIPTION OF THE LARVA OF PAPILIO CLOANTHUS 



WESTWOOD. 



On 20th June, 1894, at Masuri, in the Western Himalayas, I found a 

 larva of Papilio cloanilws, Westwood, on a large and common tree — not a 

 shrub — identified as Machilus odoratissima, Nees, on which also feed the larvte 

 of Papilio sarpedon, Linnaeus, P. glycerion, Westwood, and P. govindra, Moore. 



The full-fed larva is 1| inches long. The head and neck are contractile. 

 The body is widest at the fifth segment, from which it tapers gradually 

 to the thirteenth segment. The ridge over the head is furnished with two 

 tubercles, black in front, white posteriorly. The fifth segment has a yellow 

 bar which projects on each side beyond the body, and has the appearance 

 of a yoke. The points of this yoke are black. Colour, green. The 

 thirteenth segment is of a pale transparent blue-green. A pale yellow sub- 

 dorsal line and an almost white spiracular line are the only markings. 

 Head of a greenish-yellow. Legs, claspers, and abdomen of the same colour 

 as the thirteenth segment. The thirteenth segment terminates in two sharp 

 points which join at the end, so that the division between them is apparent 

 only on a close examination. 



Bankipur, Behar, 

 20th June, 1894. Mrs. S. ROBSON. 



No. XVI— LIFE-HISTORY OF PAPILIO GLYCERION, WESTWOOD. 



Larva, when full-fed, 1| to 1| inches in length. The fourth and fifth 

 segments are the thickest, and the larva tapers from the fifth segment to 

 the thirteenth. 



Colour green, of the same shade as the food-plant of the larva, the 

 leaves of Machilus odoratissima, Nees. The whole larva is covered with 

 minute black dots, except on the anal segment. The third segment is 

 bordered anteriorly by a narrow ochreous ridge, which surmounts the head 

 when drawn in, and is continued in unbroken spiracular lines to the tail. 

 20 



