Natural-History Collectors. 6403 



ever affairs bad called him abroad would be as well transacted. — 

 P. 225. 



Extracts from the Correspondence of Henry Birchall, Esq., while 



in South America.* 



Santa Marta, New Grenada, July 9, 1856. — All around the north- 

 east side of the town a cactus-swamp extends, and then a sort of waste 

 plantation, through which paths run, goes round to the southern side : 

 the cactus trees are from twenty to thirty feet high, and their prickles 

 are fearful, making nothing of a boot-leather. In this plantation I have 

 had some excellent entomologizing : butterflies were in prodigious 

 numbers, but so extremely active that they were hard to catch beyond 

 belief; I, however, succeeded in capturing thirty species, besides some 

 Coleoptera and dragonflies. There is no grass anywhere ; the ground 

 is covered with a sort of shrubby, bilberry-like plant, under which 

 myriads of blue, green and yellow lizards find shelter. The profusion 

 of butterflies is something quite astonishing, but they fly so fiercely 

 that they are soon injured, and perfect specimens are the exception. 

 It is only possible to collect for a,bout two hours, from 7 to 9 A. M., 

 the heat is so great. 1 knocked down with my towel yesterday a 

 beautiful swallow-tail (Papilio EpidausJ. Almost all the shrubs and 

 trees are garnished with most villanous thorns, so one has to be on 

 one's guard in rushing through the bushes after game, and many a fine 

 insect has escaped from my net becoming caught in the thorns. The 

 butterflies seem to me to take five times as much killing as our English 

 ones ; no amount of nip appears to floor the larger species, and I have 

 no chemicals at hand for them. In the bush there are lots of our 

 familiar green-house plants, — Mimosas, Daturas, Bigonias ; the mango 

 trees are something like walnuts, with a touch of yew about them, and 

 the fruit in great abundance, but 1 dare not touch it. 



Barranquilla, July 13. — On my road here the butterflies fairly drove 

 me distracted, for I could not catch them with my spurs on : this 

 afternoon I have taken a walk, and persecuted them a little, but with 

 only middling success ; in fact, I found two could play at that game, 

 and I got the worst of it, and had to procure some hartshorn as a 

 remedy for my persecutors' bites. On my return I found the saloon in 

 a commotion, on the discovery of a large scorpion ; I immediately got 

 out my bottle, and, after some manoeuvring, persuaded him into it by 



* Communicated by Edwin Birchall, Esq. 



