I8y8.] L. de Niceville— List of the Butterflies of the Ke Isles. 253 



an abundance in the sea for the trouble of catching. If they want 

 a new cloth they can obtain it without trouble on credit from the 

 numerous traders, paying for it hereafter with "copra," " tripang," &c. 

 The Ke people consider themselves to be very courageous, but are in 

 reality cowardly. In the old days before the Dutch took over the gov- 

 ernment of the islands, the natives were often fighting amongst them- 

 selves. These little wars, often extending over a considerable period, 

 came to an end at last when one side or the other had killed a few of 

 their enemies, seldom more than four or five. Under enemies, women 

 and children were included as well as men. The tribe or village losing 

 the fight and coming to the conclusion that peace was desirable, made 

 terms with the opposite side, and paid a war indemnity, sometimes in 

 laud, but usually in old cannon ("lilas"), rifles, gongs ("tom-toms"), 

 bracelets and chains of gold, plates, &c, &c. 



The islands being very small have also a very poor fauna. The 

 mammals consist of wild pigs, two species of Cuscus, a flying squirrel, a 

 flying fox, some species of bats, rats and mice. On Great Ke a kangaroo 

 and a marsupial badger are found. Birds are more common, but no 

 paradise-birds occur. 



The west monsoon blows from December till April, which is the 

 wet-season; the east monsoon also from May to November brings much 

 rain, alternating with fine clear days. The driest months are from July 

 to November. The mean humidity of the atmosphere of the Ke Isles 

 in 88'5°/ , and the mean temperature is 80"9° P. (27 '4 Cels.), according 

 to the observations of Mynheer H. C. W. Plauten, an officer of the 

 Dutch navy. 



Great Ke possesses many small rivers, which form here and there 

 beautiful waterfalls in their course from the mountains to the sea. In 

 the east monsoon they are usually dry. On Little Ke, in which there 

 are no hills, there is only one river, which is about a mile and a half 

 long, but which has an outflow of about two cubic meters a second, and 

 what is most strange, has a greater flow of water in the dry- than in the 

 wet-season, no doubt from springs at its source or in its course. Besides 

 the rivers there are in Great Ke one and in Little Ke two small lakes, 

 which have no outlet, and seem to be merely accumulations of rainfall 

 in natural depressions in the ground. 



From what has been said above, it will be understood that the en- 

 tomological fauna of the Ke archipelago is poor, but strangely enough 

 (at any rate as far as the butterflies are concerned) it has more distinct 

 endemic species than some of the neighbouring islands which are larger. 

 For instance, three out of the six known species of Euploea found on 

 the islands arc endemic to them, and three of them are very unusually- 



