182 RAMBLES OF A NATUEALI8T. [Ch. XII. 



through the maze of branches, eluding nearly every attempt 

 to capture them, except by stratagem. Others, often the 

 most handsome insects, fly habitually so high that they are 

 usually out of reach of the net. In aU such cases the sacri- 

 fice of a single specimen will often secure others ; for butter- 

 flies are gregarious, and a dead specimen pinned upon a 

 conspicuous twig wiU often arrest an insect of the same 

 species in its headlong flight, and bring it down within easy 

 reach of the net, especially if it be of the opposite sex. 

 Sugaring the trees has not been tried by entomologists in 

 this part of the world ; and the use of a lamp behind a sheet, 

 found so efiectual for nocturnal captures by Mr. Wallace, 

 has not yet been seriously adopted. 



The jungle-road, extending nearly across the island, and 

 the skirts of the jungle, always proved to me the most 

 prolific spots, the insects dashing out for a little distance 

 and pursuing their erratic flight through the open, in which 

 case, if near, there was a chance of a capture. But even 

 here it was often tantalizing to see a rare or beautiful 

 species, such as the swallow-tailed PapUio Gigon, fly out of 

 one side of the jungle, cross the road with the speed of a 

 race-horse, and irrecoverably disappear in the thicket on the 

 opposite side, almost before one could draw breath. The 

 swift flight, now over the tops of the trees, now down near 

 the ground, was characteristic of the Pieridae, of which 

 Pieris andria and Callidryas alcmeone were common ex- 

 amples ; while the Papilionidse distinguished themselves by 

 their strength of wiag and straight headlong course. If 

 missed by the first throw of the net no second chance was 

 afibrded, for the insects would whirl round and round the 

 instrument two or three times and then dash off out of sight. 



Another source of disappointment arose from the fact that 



