chap, v.] CATCHING MOTHS. 133 



certain occasions I was able to capture. As during the 

 whole of my eight years' wanderings in the East I never 

 found another spot where these insects were at all plen- 

 tiful, it will be interesting to state the exact conditions 

 under which I here obtained them. 



On one side of the cottage there was a verandah, looking 

 down the whole side of the mountain and to its summit on 

 the right, all densely clothed with forest. The boarded 

 sides of the cottage were whitewashed, and the roof of 

 the verandah was low, and also boarded and white- 

 washed. As soon as it got dark I placed my lamp on 

 a table against the wall, and with pins, insect -forceps, net, 

 and collecting-boxes by my side, sat down with a book. 

 Sometimes during the whole evening only one solitary 

 moth would visit me, while on other nights they would 

 pour in, in a continual stream, keeping me hard at work 

 catching and pinning till past midnight. They came 

 literally by thousands. These good nights were very few. 

 During the four weeks that I spent altogether on the 

 hill I only had four really good nights, and these were 

 always rainy, and the best of them soaking wet. But wet 

 nights were not always good, for a rainy moonlight night 

 produced next to nothing. All the chief tribes of moths 

 were represented, and the beauty and variety of the 

 species was very great. On good nights I was able to 

 capture from a hundred to two hundred and fifty moths, 



