360 L. de Nic6ville & Dr. L. Martin —Butterflies of Sumatra. [No. 3, 
Owing to tlie fortunate presence of an undrainable swamp on either side of 
the little Diski river, it still possesses a patch of high forest of several 
square miles in extent, in which many of the rarer species such as 
Charaxes, Papilio hermocrates , Felder, and P. delessertii , Guerin, have 
found an asylum. The second, the often-mentioned Selesseh, lies at a 
distance of six miles from Bindjei, and is on the border of tobacco cultiva¬ 
tion and immediately to the west of the village of Selesseh, where there 
is splendid continuous primeval forest which yields precious crops of 
rare butterflies, especially on the banks of the large Wampoe river. 
Our collectors were usually Battaks from the two mountainous 
zones ; to Selesseh, however, and other places in the plains we usually 
sent two very clever Chinamen. The latter were most zealous if given 
some advance of pay, which allowed them to buy some necessary 
provisions and the never-to-be-omitted opium. On their return with 
their bag of captured butterflies they received the balance of their 
monthly salary, together with an extra bonus for any rarer spoil they 
may have been fortunate enough to capture. The Battaks received 
some rice and salt fish, enough to feed them for a fortnight, before 
leaving for the mountains, but as they are inveterate gamblers, and 
will not turn out of their villages till they had lost at some game of 
hazard or another every cent they possess, no advance in cash was 
given them. When all their money from the fruits of their last expe¬ 
dition was lost, then they asked for a tin box, some butterfly papers 
and a net, and moved off with their provisions very slowly and reluc¬ 
tantly southwards to the evergreen mountains. Being moreover very 
lazy, it was impossible to grant them a fixed salary, so they were paid 
solely by results, and by valuation of the captures they brought in. On 
their return from the mountains after delivering the insects and re¬ 
ceiving their dollars, they immediately set to gambling, and did not 
appear again on the surface so long as a cent remained. All Battak 
collectors, even the most intelligent and zealous, lose their interest in 
the subject after a certain time, and would return with hardly any¬ 
thing, or a few common and useless species, and in consequence had 
to be discharged — a very great inconvenience, as it always takes a long 
time to break in a native as a good collector. Of course there was 
always lost or damaged many a rare and fine specimen through the 
awkwardness of a new collector. A few Gayoe collectors also were 
employed, who went farther away to the north and west to the Gayoe- 
lands. They brought various species of Gliaraxes largely, Prioneris 
clemanthe , Doubleday, Ixias ludekingii , Vollenhoven, Hehomoia horneensis , 
Wallace, Papilio perses, de Niceville, and P. payeni, Boisduval, all of 
which are very rare or do not occur at all on the Central Plateau. In 
