16 ME. E. TEiMEN ON Btra?TEBrLiES FEOM [Jan. 16, 



Butterllies, 1 did not take any great number on the Umtali side of 

 Christmas Pass, partly doubtless owing to the fact that during 

 the greater part of the time I was working there the weather was 

 very rainy ; but as soon as I had crossed the Pass and got to the 

 coast side of the range of hills to the south of Umtali, I at once 

 found myself in an excellent collecting ground. As I had to make 

 a long cutting down the side of the mountain and blast away a lot 

 of hard rock, I was luckily enabled to remain in this happy hunting- 

 ground for nearly a month. Scarcely a day passed that I did not 

 catch something new to me. Just below Christmas Pass was an 

 isolated granite hill, very thickly wooded on its lower sides, and in 

 the hollow between this hill and the main range was a deep shady 

 ravine, at the bottom of which ran a small stream. At the top of 

 the ravine the country was covered with bush interspersed with 

 large granite boulders, and beyond this again open prairie-land 

 running up the hill-sides, on which flowers of many varieties were 

 very plentiful. Thus in a small extent of ground 1 found a great 

 diversity of conditions and many different species of Butterflies. 

 The elevation of this portion of the country is about 3000 feet. 



" After leaving Christmas Pass the road leads through open 

 prairie-land for four or five miles to the head of the Mineni Valley. 

 This open gi'ass country is intersected by the Sikuva River and 

 several of its tributaries. I did not take many Butterflies in this 

 part of the country. 



" The Mineni Valley runs between tw'o high ranges of hills, and 

 is for the most part well wooded with open forest, intermixed with 

 large open glades entirely free from forest or bush. Several large 

 tributaries flow into the Mineni from the surrounding ranges of 

 mountains, and innumerable smaller streams. The banks of these 

 streams, o\erhung as they were by large shady trees and ferns, I 

 found to be very favourable places for collecting, and I caught a great 

 many sorts of Charaxes and Skippers drinking at the fords which 

 we cut across the streams for the \^'aggon road. It was also in the 

 Mineni Valley that I w'as lucky enough to find a tree from one of 

 whose branches some sap was exuding, which proved a constant 

 attraction to many species of Charaxes ; and on this tree I caught 

 a fine series of C boJiemani, one of the handsomest of a genus that 

 are often very difficult to catch. 



" After leaving the Mineni Valley one gets out of the hills and 

 enters upon a level country covered almost entirely with forest, 

 sometimes free from underwood but in places becoming thick 

 jungle. This country is intersected by many rivers, such as the 

 Kevue (into which the Mineni flows), and the Lusika and Lopodzi. 

 The general altitude of this part is about 2500 feet above sea-level. 

 At the river Lusika I found another tree, a species of Acacia, which 

 was much frequented by Butterflies of the genus Charaxes, and 

 here I captured the only specimen of C. azota that I saw — a female 

 in very fine condition. 



" I do not think there is anything more to be said about the 

 country, except that during the whole of the time I was working 



