1898.] OSr BUTTERFLIES FROM BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 825 



7. On a small Collection of Butterflies from Bi'itish East 

 Africa, obtained at the end of 1897 and beginning of 

 1898 by Mr. R. Crawshay. By Arthur G. Butler, 

 Vh.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



[Eeceived August 26, 1898.] 



In a letter addressed to me from Kibwezi, Ukamba, and dated 

 March oth, 1898, Mr. Crawshay writes : — 



" A line in pencil to let you know my movements, and that I 

 am on my way to the promised land^of this Protectorate at 



least. 



" I hope you have received the few, very fetv, insects I sent you 

 by Wilson, of the National Bank of India in Mombasa, who was 

 kind enough to take charge of them. They are so few that I was 

 almost ashamed to send them ; but, having promised, 1 did so in 

 the hope that perhaps the Skippers, or at any rate one of them, 

 would prove of interest. 



" I am now on my way to Machako's, and am camping here for 

 one day to ration my porters, rest them, rest myself, and rearrange 

 my loads — a never-ending task ! African travel on foot is slow 

 and very irksome and at times positively exasperating, I can assure 

 you : one has so many difficulties to contend with, the chief perhaps 

 ijeino' the waywardness of one's porters, and indeed of almost all 

 one'^ dusky followers, to say nothing of discomforts innumerable. 

 But it is intensely fascinating for all that, and I can't tell you how 

 glad I am to get back to the old life I love so well. 



"Certainly British East Africa, and especially the Ukamba 

 Province, is more healthy than British Central Africa : one feels 

 that at every breath. 



"It is hot, very hot, but also very dry; and so one does not 

 feel the temperature nearly so much as one would do otherwise. 



" I took a magnificent pair of Spiders — huge they are even 

 for Africa— on the dry plains S.E. of this, three days ago. 



" Hitherto I have seen no four-footed game, but there is plenty 



ahead."' 



The collection was handed over to me by Mr. Wilson, and I 

 found it to consist of examples of 21 species — most of them 

 collected at Takaungu, north of Mombasa, between the 19th of 

 November and 6th of December, 1897; the remainder having been 

 obtained at Mombasa on the 23rd January, 1898. 



As usual with Mr. Crawshay's collections, the specimens are in 

 good condition, and although none of them are new to science, 

 several are of interest ; as, for instance, a dry-season female of 

 Tpihimapupillaris, two highly coloured males of Lachnocnema tihulus^ 

 differing greatly in size, the somewhat rare white form of the female 

 of Teracolus imjjerator, a dry-season female of T. dissociatus, a very 

 tiny and somewhat aberrant male of T. omphale, the intermediate 

 phase of the red-tipped variation of T. callidia, and two fine males 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1898, No. I,V 55 



