184 Transactions.—Zoology. 
He informs me that whenever he has seen the butterfly it has been flying 
high, but not swiftly, in sunny sheltered places among trees, and settling on 
them. He also saw it travelling fast over the country along the coast. The 
first he saw early in November, and the last he took the first week in April. 
All the Maoris to whom he showed the butterfly said they knew it, and the 
` old Maoris say it is called “ kakšhü,” and is in some years very plentiful. The 
caterpillar, they tell him, was very plentiful this year, and feeds upon the 
pollen of the gourd which they grow in that part of the country (Hawke Bay). 
They are unanimous in saying that the butterfly was there before any white 
man came, and the Rev. W. Colenso, of Hawke Bay, told Mr. Meinertzhagen 
that he saw it there many years ago. 
Having heard that his neighbour, Mr. Nairn, had been feeding some new 
kind of caterpillar found in his garden, Mr. Meinertzhagen wrote to him and 
obtained three рирге, which he describes as short and stumpy, of a pale green 
colour, and dotted with gold spots on the edge of the part which covers the 
wings The Maori to whom he showed them recognized them as the рирге of 
the Danais. Unfortunately the rats got at and destroyed them. 
Mr. Nairn sent him a coloured sketch of the -caterpillar, and said he had 
made the sketch entirely from memory and was unable to give the exact 
proportions of the caterpillar or its number of legs; that it had two horns or 
feelers on its head, and they appeared to be in continual motion. He describes 
the shrub on which he found the caterpillar as the Gomphocarpus ovata, one of 
the milk-producing plants, and a native of the Cape of Good Hope. The cater- 
pillar is represented in the ағы аз од with the joints of the segments 
yellow, and some white spots on the n dsegment. Two rather long 
tentacles or appendages appear to rise and project ый the second segment ог 
back part of the head, and a caudal horn from the last segment. 
T am not aware of any record of this species of butterfly having been 
captured before in New Zealand, but, as I have already stated, the Hawke 
Bay Maoris and Mr. Colenso testify to its appearance in former years. 
That the butterfly has been *introduced" into New Zealand, or even into 
New South Wales (as intimated by Mr. French), seems to me extremely 
improbable, 
If introduced it must have been either purposely or accidentally. That it 
has been purposely introduced I think no one will credit without some record 
of such introduction. That it has been accidentally introduced I think equally 
improbable, and, as to New Zealand, next to impossible, considering the 
distance it would have to travel over the ocean, and the extraordinary 
combination of favourable cireumstances that must have arisen before it could 
possibly have become established in such locality. 
And why should this butterfly be thought to have been introduced any 
