chap, xvi.] A NATURALISTS PLEASURES 365 



while at night herds of wild pigs roamed about the house, 

 devouring refuse, and obliging us to put away everything 

 eatable or breakable from our little cooking-house. A few 

 minutes' search on the fallen trees around my house at 

 sunrise and sunset, would often produce me more beetles 

 than I woidd meet with in a day's collecting, and odd 

 moments could be made valuable which when living in 

 villages or at a distance from the forest are inevitably 

 wasted. Where the sugar-palms were dripping with sap, 

 flies congregated in immense numbers, and it was by 

 spending half an hour at these when I had the time to 

 spare, that I obtained the finest and most remarkable 

 collection of this group of insects that I have ever made. 



Then what delightful hours I passed wandering up and 

 down the dry river-courses, full of water-holes and rocks 

 and fallen trees, and overshadowed by magnificent vege- 

 tation ! I soon got to know every hole and rock and 

 stump, and came up to each with cautious step and bated 

 breath to see what treasures it would produce. At one 

 place I would find a little crowd of the rare butterfly 

 Tachyris zarinda, which would rise up at my approach, 

 and display their vivid orange and cinnabar-red wings, 

 while among them would flutter a few of the fine blue- 

 banded Papilios. Where leafy branches hung over the 

 gully, I might expect to find a grand Ornithoptera at rest 

 and an easy prey. At certain rotten trunks I was sure to 



