CHAP, v.] 



CATcmxa MOWS. 



tropical fruits. We returned to Sarawak for Cbristoiaa 

 (the second I had spent with Sir James Brooke), when all 

 the Europeans both iu the tcnvn and I'rom the out-stations 

 enjoyed the bospitality of the Hajah, who possessed in a 

 pre-eminent degree the art of making every one around 

 him comfortable and bappy. 



A few days afterwards I returned to the mountain with 

 Charles and a Malay boy named Ali and stayed there 

 three weeks for -thfi pm-pose of making a collection of 

 land-sbeUs, butterflies and moths, ferns and orcbiil.s. On 

 the hill itself ferns were tolerably plentiful, and I made 

 a collection of about forty species. But what occupied 

 me most was the great abundan^ie of moths which on 

 certain occasions I was able to captui^e. As during the 

 whole of my eight years' wanderings in the East 1 never 

 found auotiier spot where these insects were at all plen- 

 tiful, it will be interesting to state the exact conditions 

 under wliich 1 here obtained them. 



On one side of the cottage there was a verandah, looking 

 down the whole side of the mountain and to its summit on 

 the right, aU densely clothed with forest. The boarded 

 sides of the cottage were whitewashed, and the roof of 

 the veiwidah was low, and also boarded and white- 

 washed. As soon as it got dark I placed my lamp on 

 a table against tlie wall, and with pins, insect-forceps, net, 

 and coUeetiug- boxes by my side, sat down with a book. 

 Sometimes dui'iug the whole eveniug only one solitary 

 moth would visit me, while on other nights tliey would 

 pour in, in a continual stream, keeping me hard at work 

 catching and pimiing till past midnight. They came 

 literally by thousands. These good nights were very few. 

 During the fo\ir weeks that 1 spent altogether on the 

 hill I only had four really good nights, and these were 

 always miny, and the best of them soaking wet. But wet 

 nights were not always good, for a i-aiuy moonlight night 

 produced next to nothing. All the chief tribes of moths 

 were represented, and the beauty and variety of the 

 species was very great. On good nights 1 was able to 

 captnre from a hundred to two hundred and fifty moths, 

 and i\\om cuniprit^ed on each occasion from half to two- 

 thirds tliat number of distinct species. Some of them 



