50 
PROCEEDINGS OF TIIE VICTORIA INSTITUTE. 
in open ground is Poly damns or the black page. The wings are 
brown with a yellow margin to the hind ones. Neither of the 
above three species has tails. 
Papilio thoas, or the Bamboo Page as it is called, is also 
common here. This is a very wide spread species, extending 
from the southern states of North America to Brazil. This 
handsome species has tails and somewhat resembles the European 
Machaon. Bike the foregoing species it hovers round flowers and 
bushes much as humming birds do. 
Besides these common Papilios there are three or four rarer 
species in Trinidad. 
One of these, the beautiful Papilio cirgesilaus , I have seen 
two successive years in almost the same spot on the Marava. 
river. Each time I only saw a single specimen. I have never 
met with it elsewhere. The fact of its being seen in successive 
years, and the specimen each time being apparently fresh, would 
suggest that the species probably breeds at Maraval, the 100.1 
plant perhaps being very local. It seems strange, however, that 
more specimens are not seen there. 
The fifth family of butterflies comprises the Hespcriid& oi 
Skippers. This is an isolated family, having no great affinity with 
the other butterflies or the moths. Its chief characteristics are 
that the body is robust ; the head broad ; the antennae inserted 
widely apart and often hooked, and the hind tibise spurred, 
skipper must be familiar to all of us. As their name implies they 
move rapidly from flower to flower, seeming almost to jump rather 
than fly. 
This family is very largely represented in tropical America, 
severe hundred species being known. Trinidad is rich in skipper- 
idr. Gatty and I obtained some fifty species, besides many othei 
not yet determined. There are probably many more to be 
here, possibly some of them new species. 
Tn size, form and colour there is wonderful variety, from ^ 
large common tailed Thymrte to the tiny brown skippers which 
