52 BATCHIAN. [chap. xxiv. 



I obtained a good series of the new butterfly, which I have 

 since named Ornithoptera crojsus. The Mussaenda bush 

 was an admirable place, which I could visit every day on 

 my way to the forest ; and as it was situated in a dense 

 thicket of shrubs and creepers, I set my man Lahi to clear 

 a space all round it, so that I could easily get at any insect 

 that might visit it. Afterwards, finding that it was often 

 necessary to wait some time there, I had a little seat put 

 up under a tree by the side of it, where I came every day 

 to eat my lunch, and thus had half an hour's watching 

 about noon, besides a chance as I passed it in the morning. 

 In this way I obtained on an average one specimen a 

 day for a long time, but more than half of these were 

 females, and more than half the remainder worn or broken 

 specimens, so that I should not have obtained many 

 perfect males had I not found another station for them. 



As soon as I had seen them come to flowers, I sent my 

 man Lahi with a net on purpose to search for them, as 

 they had also been seen at some flowering trees on the 

 beach, and I promised him half a day's wages extra for 

 every good specimen he could catch. After a day or 

 two he brought me two very fair specimens, and told me 

 he had caught them in the bed of a large rocky stream 

 that descends from the mountains to the sea about a mile 

 below the village. They flew down this river, settling 

 occasionally on stones and rocks in the water, and he was 



