BUTTERFLIES 



15 



really wish to investigate them, must be sought in other 

 directions. I think that the facts above mentioned are 

 calculated to guide us in the search. They show, for 

 instance, that beauty of form and colour is not peculiar 

 to one zone, but is producible under any climate where 

 a number of species of a given genus lead a flourishing 

 existence. The ornamental dress is generally the pro- 

 perty of one sex to the exclusion of the other, and the 

 cases of widest contrast between the two are exhibited 

 in those regions where life is generally more active and 

 prolific. All this points to the mutual relations of the 

 species, and especially to those between the sexes, as 

 having far more to do in the matter than climate. 



In the gardens, numbers of fine showy butterflies were 

 seen. There were two swallow- tailed species, similar in 

 colours to the English Papilio Machaon ; a white Pieris 

 (P. Monuste), and two or three species of brimstone and 

 orange-coloured butterflies, which do not belong, however, 

 to the same genus as our English species. In weedy 

 places a beautiful butterfly, with eye-like spots on its 

 wings, was common, the Junonia Lavinia, the only 

 Amazonian species which is at all nearly related to our 

 Vanessas, the Admiral and Peacock butterflies. One 

 day we made our first acquaintance with two of the most 

 beautiful productions of nature in this department ; 

 namely the Helicopis Cupido and Endymion. A little 

 beyond our house, one of the narrow green lanes which 

 I have already mentioned diverged from the Monguba 

 avenue, and led, between enclosures overrun with a pro- 

 fuvsion of creeping plants and glorious flowers, down to a 

 moist hollow, where there was a public well in a pictur- 

 esque nook, buried in a grove of Mucaja palm-trees. On 

 the tree-trunks, walls, and palings, grew a great quantity 

 of climbing Pothos plants, with large glossy heart-shaped 

 leaves. These plants were the resort of these two ex- 

 quisite species, and we captured a great number of speci- 

 mens. They are of extremely delicate texture. The 

 wings are cream-coloured ; the hind pair have several 

 tail-like appendages, and are spangled beneath as if with 

 silver. Their flight is very slow and feeble ; they seek 

 the protected under-surface of the leaves, and in repose 

 close their wings over the back, so as to expose the bril- 

 liantly spotted under-surface. 



I will pass over the many other orders and families of 



