Correspondence of Mr. Bates. 3231 



very rare at Ega, and found chiefly round solitary houses in the forest; 

 it flies slowly, and settles upon the leaves of trees with wings closed. 

 Callithea Sapphira seems peculiar toSantarem; I have not taken it. 

 C. Laprieurii was common at Obydosin November, 1849. Besides the 

 Callithea, there must be many new species in the Nymphalidae and 

 Papilionidae taken at Ega ; I numbered 124 species of Diurnes taken 

 new to me, and now number 922 species taken by me in the province. 



I wrote to you accompanying the January collection, saying I was 

 coming home. It was chiefly from a desire to please my father, who 

 wishes me to return ; but after receiving your last letter, I have 

 thought more seriously about it, and shall consider the matter before 

 I leave Para. The Rio Negro is the only very practicable river-branch 

 of the Amazons, having many turns right away to Venezuela, and 

 pretty frequent conveyances ; the rest are all savage countries, the 

 best being the Tapajos from Santarem. I made inquiries at Santa- 

 rem coming down, and find there are no serious obstacles, either from 

 unhealthiness or ill-disposed Indians, on the Tapajos and white set- 

 tlements to 151 miles from Santarem. Between this and the sailing 

 of the ' Princess Royal * I will consider it, as I am now all in confu- 

 sion, with my new house, &c. ; meantime I will see to preparing here 

 a few chests of botanical curiosities, young palms dried, curious fruits, 

 &c. There is also a good picking yet of insects here. A German, 

 whom I had taught at Carepe, has collected and sold to an American 

 merchant here about 4000 specimens of Coleoptera, amongst which 

 I see fifty-five species of Longicornes alone new to me ; they are 

 however all falling to pieces by the Dermestes, from being kept in 

 open lath boxes. Mr. Hewitson will see in the last collection a short 

 series of the Heliconia-like Papilio ; it is found at the edge of the 

 water in the lake of Ega, when the river is falling. I assure you I 

 took all I could of this, the Callithea, and other rarer Diurnes, when I 

 was there. I could have taken more of some species, of which you will 

 see full series ; and perhaps, if I had known positively that the Calli- 

 thea, was a Batesii, I might have made greater efforts to have taken 

 more. For this reason, you had better give me the names and num- 

 bers of all the species, common and rare, with advice to each, the 

 numbers according to my private specimens of each kind, as I can al- 

 ways recognize them by my note-book. 



Carabidae are still very rare ; there are really very few in this region, 

 being all a dead flat from Para to Ega, the only hilly country is about 

 Monte Alegra and Santarem ; the Amazonian valley there is much 

 narrower than further up. From the chain of mountains of Monte 



