BUTTERFLIES 215 



quenched ; others may be seen in groups and 

 clusters like some bright-coloured flower-bed, ab- 

 sorbing the moisture from the ground where your 

 path leads you through wet, marshy hollows. I 

 have seen square yards of tremulous- winged sulphur 

 or agitated mauve where the pretty short-lived 

 insects, regardless of my presence, unrolled and 

 eagerly plied their watchspring-like trunks in 

 sucking in the precious fluid that damped the 

 surface. 



A common form, perhaps the most common of 

 all, is a very beautifully, if somewhat soberly, 

 marked, or perhaps it would be better to say " pro- 

 tectively " marked, grey variety. This insect is 

 found sunning itself in the path, the centre of the 

 native village, or fluttering round the impedimenta 

 outside the tent. When at rest on the ground, 

 were it not for the movement of its wings, it would 

 be practically indistinguishable from its surround- 

 ings. Another large common variety is the rapid- 

 flying, tailed Papilio, of dull red, covered with 

 green spots and stripes. This form is found in 

 every part of Africa which I have as yet visited. 

 Large white butterflies, and others of similar size 

 and pale yellow, are daily visitors to such patches 

 of flowering plants as your garden may possess ; 

 whilst in the forest country of the interior mag- 

 nificent specimens may be seen flitting in and out 

 of the blossoming papilionaceous trees and sweet- 

 scented baphias. One royal purple insect of large 

 size with yellow spots is frequently seen, as also 

 a bright crimson Tyndarseus, which, like many of 

 the varieties whose sustenance is derived from the 



