186 EAMBLES OP A NATUEAJJST. [Oh. XII. 



had been flying about in unwonted abundance. Looking for 

 some cause for this difference between the two islands, I 

 imagine that the first-mentioned a,bounding in pools of water 

 gave it more favourable conditions for butterfly existence ; 

 while in the latter, as I could nowhere meet with a drop of 

 water, so also I could find no Lepidopterous insects. 



The time which I found most favourable for capturing 

 these insects was from 7 a.m. to near 11 ; before 7 I have 

 found scarcely any stirring, and as noon approaches they 

 almost suddenly disappear. A few return in the afternoon, 

 but scarcely in sufficient numbers to make a walk profitable. 

 And, indeed, after four or five hours of such work, though 

 not without pleasant excitement, a rest had been well earned. 

 And then it was that a fresh cocoa-nut, added to the stores 

 brought with us, was thoroughly appreciated ; and no longer 

 enticed from our repose by the flying gems which had 

 hitherto allured us, I halted with my Malays on the sand 

 beneath the spreading branches of a Dolichos, or under 

 some shady tree festooned with epiphytic orchids. Here, 

 listening to the ripple on the shore, and the loud song of the 

 cicadas, and looking over the cahn blue sea to the wooded 

 shores of Labuan or Borneo, the hours of high noon were 

 very agreeably passed, until the time arrived for resuming 

 the net, or for a hunt upon the beach, or perhaps a sail back 

 from whence we came. 



It was at such times that I have often watched the nume- 

 rous hermit crabs (Paguri and Ccenobitae), which abound on 

 aU these sandy beaches ; and where these border the jungle, 

 they creep up among the dead leaves for a considerable 

 distance, so that I have not unfrequently, when standing in 

 the skirts of the jungle watching for insects, been startled 

 by a rustle at my feet, which at first I mistook for a snake 



