110 
CEYLON 
yet free from the excessive damp of many places within the tropics. 
Its vegetation is by far the richest that I had seen. My pleasure in 
collecting in this earthly paradise was enhanced by the companion¬ 
ship of Mr. W. G. Freedley, junr., of Philadelphia, who had been 
collecting butterflies in Borneo, Celebes, Japan, Macao, etc. 
In such a locality it was perhaps to be expected that Pierines 
would not be dominant, at any rate so it was. By far the commonest 
of the family was Gatopsilia pomona, of which the males were very 
abundant, but strong fliers and by no means easy to catch. We 
remarked that usually they all flew in the same direction, and that 
uphill. As the females were comparatively scarce one was not 
surprised to see more than once signs of jealousy on the part of the 
males. On stroking the “ scent tufts ” on the hind-wings of the 
male, I detected a slight jasmine-like scent. A female Terias 
hecabe had apparently been bitten in both hind-wings when at rest, 
the injuries being more or less symmetrical. Delias eucharis was 
scarce, Catophaga paulina more common. In one case I saw a 
bird try to catch a specimen of the latter on the wing; the bird 
missed its quarry, but I was more successful; it proved to be 
a male. 
The Danaines were well to the front, the commonest species 
being Parantica aglea; this is smaller and greyer than Tirumala 
limniace and varies considerably in size, a small male measuring 
only 2*5 in., a large female as much as 3*4 in. across the wings. It 
was curious that this species appeared in abundance late in the 
afternoons, as other things were retiring. I was surprised to find 
that a male when fluttering in the net gave out a strong scent like 
that of Grastia core , i.e. resembling acetylene. This was noted in 
two or three specimens, and was quite unmistakable. Tirumala 
septentrionis, Butl., appeared to be rather common; a female has 
the hind-wings much broken, perhaps from the bite of a lizard, but 
the breakage is only in part symmetrical. Danaida plexippus, of 
which I took a very small one, was very scarce, and I did not see 
D. chrysippus at all. The genus Grastia was represented by many 
individuals. I took five C. asela, Moore ; of one of them I noted at 
the time, “ has a scent as in core.” 
But the most prominent group of butterflies at Kandy was 
assuredly the Papilioninae; I met with six species. The most 
remarkable was Ornithoptera darsius , Gray, which is peculiar to 
Ceylon, an insect that I had greatly wanted to take; it appears to 
be fairly common, as two were seen at Peradeniya, seven or eight at 
Kandy, and two at Haragama. It sails about somewhat slowly and 
